Of Titanic Proportions
by haganeochibi
Summary: Jean Yamato's plane crashed on the way to America, where she finds out that she's not wholly human and she has to face the consequences of being a half-blood. And being a half-blood can be deadly. Formerly Poseidon's Daughter: Yamato Sui Jean.
1. Prologue

**Poseidon's Daughter: Yamato Sui Jean**

**A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi**

**A.N.: This is a repost of the first chapter after a reviewer (Rainbowlollipop) noticed a few errors. I will post the next chapter shortly. **

Prologue

The first time I heard of air planes at school, I made sure I would be able to ride one when I get older. I got so excited when my mom told me the big news: we were flying to the USA in a month! My mom had originally thought of riding a cruise ship to the US, but I had to persuade her (actually, more of blackmail... just kidding) to get plane tickets. She had already had the necessary papers processed and she made sure we had enough cash, clothes, and the works. Yeah, and so I began counting the days. And I immediately regretted my excitement. See, the first few hours of flying were good enough, but when we were nearing the West coast, everything went horribly wrong,

The whole plane shook so hard due to high winds. I heard one of the crew say (with the frantic panicky voice) that the plane lost its communication with the airport. Another cried that half the engine went down. To cap it all, lightning ripped the otherwise dark sky apart. The whole crew and a lot of the passengers were going crazy. Apparently, this was the first time this kind of horrible catastrophe happened. My mom's eyes reflected the fear in my eyes, but she spoke in a voice of forced calm when she hugged me tightly.

"Mizu-chan, shh... everything will be fine," she said while stroking my jet black straight hair. The plane went down, and I mean literally spiralled downward in a sickening roller-coaster-like motion. A lot of screams were drowned by the booming thunder. The thunder and lightning seemed a lot fiercer in this time. I was sure the pilots were having a hard time steering.

"Mom!"

I held on to my mother's sleeves tightly, but she held me at arm's length, regarding me carefully. I was scared, but I had feeling of dread; this may be the last time I could talk to her.

"Mizu-chan, no matter what happens, do not forget who you are..." she said slowly and clearly. "I have no time to explain everything now... but just-"

Everything went dark. The plane's electrical system must have failed. all I could see was lightning outside. My mom hugged me one last time. "I love you..."

Then lightning managed to find our plane. A resounding explosion destroyed almost everything; people, velvet line chairs, the luggage... and the last things I remember was falling down, down, down into oblivion, and booming voice I couldn't recognize.

I opened my eyes after what seemed like eons. I don't know what I was seeing, but it might be an out of body experience, or just a dream. Yeah, maybe it was a dream. Well, I saw two men in a room filled with a lot of chairs arranged in a semi circle. The room looked like it was under renovation; a lot of scaffoldings here and there supported arches, columns and the ceiling. A large glass window granted you a spectacular night view of a bustling city. New York, maybe? The view was spoiled by the argument of the two men. They looked weird as a pair, honestly. They looked like men of authority, but then, dreams can be curious stuff. Well, one was wearing a surfer dude outfit complete with a 'kiss-the-fish-dude' shirt, surfer shorts and beach sandals. He had a decent tan and had several wrinkles at the sides of his eyes, like he had a habit of smiling a lot; a habit he did not put to use now he was arguing. The other guy was wearing a traditional Western suit. His blonde hair and electric blue eyes radiated pure energy, and he had a scary-looking bolt in his right hand. I couldn't hear completely what they were saying, but I did catch words like 'my child' and 'sky domain' among their sentences. They didn't make any sense to me.

They looked like ready to hit each other, but their argument was thankfully cut short by a girl a good few years older than me. She had regal face framed with blonde curls cascading down to her chest. Her stormy gray eyes was reading a scroll and she was about to speak when she caught sight of the two men. She was rooted to the spot, as expected.

The tanned dude nodded to the other man. "We shall continue discussing this at another time, brother."

Brother? They looked nothing alike. The man in the suit merely nodded gravely and regarded the girl.

"Pray continue with your work, Annabeth," he said in a calmer tone. He then stormed out of the room. The girl wisely stood away from the crackling bolt. Then to my eternal surprise, the other dude who looked like he had come from a fishing party, disappeared with a wave of his hand and leaving a few green wisps of vapour in the air.

The girl nodded meekly, clearly relishing that she was safe from the two intimidating men. Then she clapped a hand to her forehead.

"Percy has a sibling," she realized, her gray eyes wide.

A lot of questions sprang up in my head. Who were those two dudes? Why were they arguing of a child and the sky? Who was Percy and who was his sibling? Who is Annabeth and why does she have eyes like grandma?

But before I could wonder too much about them, something wrenched me back to the cold cruel world.

_"You're doing well with those new cabins, by the way. I suppose this means I can claim all those other sons and daughters of mine and send you some siblings next summer."_

~Poseidon, PJO: The Last Olympian

**A.N.: He's going to send you a sibling sooner than you think… but what do you think?**

**Thanks to those who reviewed and hit the favourite and story alert buttons! It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.**


	2. Ch 1 I'm in Hell!

**Poseidon's Daughter: Yamato Sui Jean**

**A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi**

**Disclaimer: haganoechibi does not own PJO.**

"_It hasn't been easy, you know. Having only the dead for company. Knowing that I'll never be accepted by the living. Only the dead respect me, and they only do that out of fear." _

~Nico di Angelo, PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth by RR

Chapter 1: I'm in Hell?

The next time I regained consciousness, all I could remember was that plane crash.

My eyelids fluttered open and I found myself on a beach, possibly in the West Coast. I was sure that I wasn't dreaming this time. Everything felt real; the coarse brown sand on my skin, chilly sea breeze rushing by, and even the sea which coaxed me wave after wave. It was strange; I knew I had been through a rough night, and yet I felt strong. And somehow, I had survived that plane crash. But a cold sinking feeling told me that no one else did.

Before I could sink into a depression, the medics arrived on the scene. The moment they took me away from the water, I instantly felt fatally tired. The medics had me in an ambulance and in a few minutes, the team had brought me in the nearest hospital. The doctor did not seem to find anything too bad about me because I was rushed to the recovery room with a tube filled with transparent liquid attached to my arm. A white clad nurse injected something to my right arm and I fell asleep.

The next time I woke up, I had gained my strength. Then everything that happened came back in one big flashback and I sat bolt upright with my hands clapped to my mouth.

"Good evening sweetheart," someone said in a sickly sweet voice. I looked up to see a young American woman sitting at my bedside. She looked like your typical female social worker complete with the designer suit. But that didn't mean I liked her. My gut instincts told me I shouldn't. Besides, what kind of social worker would not introduce themselves first?

"I hear you got washed up on the beach this morning but you were surprisingly not wounded," she continued. Now, I know that I was in a foreign country, specifically an English-speaking one. Luckily, my mom had worked with my English prior to our fiasco of a trip. I nodded to indicate I understood her.

"Who are you?" she asked. I had to gulp down the dread I felt to answer.

"J-Jea... J-Jean Yamato," I said in what voice I had left. It was pretty hoarse, to be honest.

"Not American, I see. Okay, Jean, now that you're in the US, we need to take care of a few things," she said, taking my tube-free arm. "But first, I want to know what happened to you before you were washed up on the beach."

"M-my mom a-and I were in a faulty plane th-that c-c-crashed… l-like it was hit b-by s-something… something like l-l-lightning," I recalled. I hung my head, trying to stop the sick downgrading emotions threatening to consume me. "I-I-I d-d-don't know i-if any b-b-body else survived."

"You're right. Nobody survived. Except you."

The social worker regarded me with beady blue eyes as the sinking feeling washed over me. But wait. I can't cry now. I have to pull myself together. Something was wrong. It was as if she knew nobody would survive. Except me.

"I see," she said, clicking her tongue matter-of-factly. I noticed she didn't carry anything with her. She only had a glum gray suit on. And her long blonde hair fell down her back in a not so bright and gay way. "Are you feeling better now, dearie?"

"I guess," I managed. I didn't know what to do. Part of me wanted to sob my heart out but another wanted to rip the tube from my arm and run away.

"See, the doctor just signed the release papers, and when you get out of the hospital, you'll be staying at the refugee center," she explained, indicating a few sheets of paper on the side table. She had that creepy smile going on. Maybe it was just my nerves. Or maybe it was my ADHD acting up again. Yeah, I did forget to mention I had ADHD, and it earned me a lot of 'weirdo' and disapproving looks from peers. But that's another story. "If you would come with me, I can bring you there in a jiffy!"

Before I could react, she had my arm in a vice-grip and had me out of the hospital. It was strange that nobody noticed us walk away, even the receptionist. But the woman kept on walking in the cold night. The unfamiliar American streets were surprisingly deserted and foggy and dark and scary. The starless sky seemed to loom over me like a blanket of doom.

The woman was speed walking down an alleyway. Her legs worked so fast I could barely keep up. It was like she was really excited about something and was trying to contain it.

I glanced at the social worker, but her face seemed to morph from human to who-knows-what kind of other worldly creature, one with chalk-white skin and glowing red eyes. My eyes widened in horror and my throat let out a yell. This was horribly wrong.

"_Yamete!_" I shouted. _Stop it!_

I yanked at her hand with all my might but she just tightened her grip smiled maliciously with yellow fangs.

It was probably a hopeless case; I was only a twelve-year-old versus a full-grown _bakemono_, or monster. But my body was going all out in yanking my arm out her hands with all the defense training my grandmother gave me, but the monster was inhumanly strong. The monster turned sharply to a dark alley leading and pinned me to the wall. My screams for help filled the deathly silent place. No one seemed to hear me. Tears of desperation and dread flowed down my pale cheeks as I felt her hot rancid breath upon my face.

"What are you?" I asked, horror still etched on my face.

The bakemono licked her lips and answered, "Me? I'm a demon. And I'm your worst nightmare."

I gulped.

"I usually prefer men," she explained, relishing the moment. Her red eyes studied my green-grey eyes curiously. "But you'll have to do. And you do smell so much like that fish boy who killed my apprentice."

"I'm not a fish!" I cried indignantly. It wasn't the best sentence I'd say to a bakemono.

Then as if to emphasize the point, she breathed deeply.

"Finally, I get to taste demigod flesh!" she whispered to me hungrily. Surprise temporarily shadowed the horror. Demigod? What was that? I certainly wasn't one.

"You must have the wrong girl!" I yelled, my voice octaves higher than normal. I was a newly-orphaned Japanese girl who was supposed to move to America. I had no mysteries to hide. "I'm not a demigod! I'm just an ordinary human girl!"

The monster-woman laughed and it sounded like a badly damaged accordion. "Really? Then let's scare you a bit, shall we? You demigods taste best that way!"

With a swift movement, she threw me upward and struck me in the gut. The force sent me travelling an arc towards a park, where I hit my head on a bench. My head felt woozy; I sustained a head wound and I was losing blood.

I blinked, and saw her bakemono face above my own. I felt confusion, dread and most of all pain, which awakened the sudden surge of adrenaline in me. My hand grabbed a pebble. The bakemono leaned in for a bite, and my body reacted. I smashed the pebble to the side of her head. It wasn't much damage, but it was enough to buy me time. I rolled away from her and got up on a kneeling position. I ran, but she was faster. She was in front of me in a few steps, and she hit me in the head. I went down.

The surge was gone and I felt that helpless feeling. However, it was not just being unable to fight for my life. It was the feeling of near death. Strangely, this comforted me; I was going to see my mother again.

"Whoops!"

She licked blood off my head wound. She leaned in. This was it. But just when I was ready to die, I thought I saw a dark gleaming rod protruding from the bakemono's head, and a pale dark-haired black-eyed boy kneeling beside me. My last thought was: he looks like death.

...

When my consciousness returned, I thought: this fainting-waking thing is getting to be a bit common.

I opened my eyes to find the black haired boy standing at the edge of the bed or rather, sofa, where I lay. He was studying me intently with his deep black eyes, like he was expecting me to do something. In one fleeting deathly scary moment, my sub par mind went back to a childhood memory.

...

_My legs were exhausted from running for my life. I turned a corner to an alleyway and saw that I was trapped. A wall greeted me and I leaned on it for comfort. I was panting and I slid down the wall I was leaning on. Tears clouded my eyes as I realized that I could die. Hope had deserted me. My mom and grandma would be waiting for me at home, not knowing I was a goner. _

_A man was after me, and he wanted to kill me with his long black knife. But I didn't know why. What did he want from me?_

_My breath came in gasps as I saw his figure approach. This was my end._

"_Cry little girl," he crooned softly. His cold uncaring voice sent a shiver down my spine. "It will be your last."_

_He was over my curled up form now. He grabbed me by the hair and I gasped in pain as he pulled me up. Then I noticed his features in the light of the moon: deathly pale skin, jet black hair hung loose all over his Western features, hooked nose, and the worst, manic black eyes. Those cold eyes bore into mine with dark intent.._

_He put his blade at my throat and stared at me in wonder, like he was wondering what I could have done to him. Finally, he whispered, "I need to kill you now. You will only stop us."_

_I shut my eyes as he raised his knife for the kill. The moonlight suddenly disappeared, casting a shadow over me. I hoped that it would protect me as the blade came rushing down in one swift slash._

'_Good bye, mom. Good bye grandma,' I thought. But I wasn't to die then._

...

"Kill me now, please." I muttered softly. I just wanted to be with my mom. Then he came nearer.

Instinctively, I tried to move away from him and my eyes filled with that same fright all those years ago. Those black eyes scared me most of all.

"Ow!" I plummeted back to a lying position and I endured a searing pain throughout my body; especially the head and abdominal area. The boy gave me a small wry smile but I saw the shadow of a pained look cross his features.

Then I realized my head wrapped in bandages. From what I could see, I was in a lavishly furnished sitting room complete with a crackling fireplace. Only that the fire was green. Strange. I stared at my new companion.

Surprise and confusion filled his eyes and he frowned. "I just saved you and now you want to be killed?"

I stared at him hard in his deep eyes. Grandma told me that I could discover a lot from a person by doing that. Slowly, I realized then that he wasn't that kind of person. He was different. I could trust him. The boy in question had silky black hair, black eyes and pale skin. He could not have been much older than I was; maybe he was a year older? Then he had an aviator's jacket on over a black-and-white shirt showcasing a few dancing skeletons, and that he had skull ring on his finger. He was what I would call a Goth punk only that he didn't use Onyx nail polish and eye liner.

I noticed a black sheath with a familiar-looking handle on the table next to the sofa. Then I remembered what happened in another flashback. This boy HAD saved my life.

"Thanks," I muttered. I blinked back the tears of the pain I've been through and in doing so, I swallowed back the pain. I had to pull myself together. I was alone now. Grandma was far away, and Mom was still gone. I looked at him straight in the eyes. "Thank you for saving me."

He frowned and said, "You don't sound grateful."

My breath came out as one big sigh. "No, please, don't take it badly. I just had a really bad time. My plane just crashed into the ocean and I was nearly eaten by a monster who called me a dem... demi..."

"Demigod?" He prompted and I gave a curt nod.

"You don't know you're a half-blood?" he asked, his eyes widening. "You haven't been told anything about being a demigod?"

"I don't know anything," I admitted. "I don't know why that bakemono-"

"Bake- what?"

"It's monster in Japanese."

"You mean that empousai."

"Whatever. That monster called me a demigod. I don't even know what that is," I said. He probably knew about demigods; perhaps he was one. "Wait, are you a demigod?"

The boy nodded and said, "Demigods or half-bloods are the children of the Greek gods."

"Greek gods?" I exclaimed skeptically. My head was starting to swim again, but my mind perked up at the prospect of new information. "But—"

"Yeah, I know. They exist and all that. They even have an Olympus at the Empire State Tower," he explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But when they have children with humans, the kids are called demigods. They attract monsters, just like what happened to you."

"Monsters? I thought there was only one," I said. I still couldn't believe the Greek gods existed. They just... couldn't.

"You blacked out. More had started to come thanks to the scent of your blood, and I had to bring you elsewhere," he said, fidgeting slightly. Elsewhere? Wait. Where am I?

I was about to ask but at that point, two people entered the room: a man shrouded in the deepest black robe, and a beautiful woman in a flowing white dress with her hair cascading down her back. They were speaking in low voices, but it was enough to say that they were arguing.

"Your parents?" I asked. His black eyes turned on the man in the black robe.

"My father," he said absently. "My mom... she let's just say she's been long gone."

"I'm sorry," I said. "That's something we have in common."

The boy gave me fleeting glance when the man approached my makeshift hospital bed.

"Who do we have here?" he asked the boy.

"Father," the boy knelt in front of the man. Wow, I've seen Japanese folk do so, but not in these kind of social meetings. "She's a demigod I rescued from being attacked by empousai."

"Hmm... I thought Hecate has recalled her servants. But as for you," the boy's father said, regarding me with narrowed black eyes. "I still say she should remain here for eternity. She has eaten nectar and ambrosia."

His voice was soft, but dangerous at the same time. I shuddered mentally despite the questions popping up in my head. If I heard right, I was to remain here forever. That was a nice welcoming present. To my surprise, the woman who stood beside the man frowned and pinched him.

"Those came from Nico's Camp Half-blood rations! I say she should be returned to the surface," the woman said. Oh, so the boy was named Nico. "Besides, she's..."

There was a strange pause. "I don't want her here until her death day."

"She owes the Underworld her life!" the man said, raising his tone. What?

"Wait, back up!" I interrupted their thread of thoughts. I rounded on Nico. "I'm in HELL?"

Nico visibly winced. Wait a minute. Nico just started talking about Greek gods. If he's not a loony and is actually telling the truth, then: "You're Hades, and she's Persephone!"

That would explain the dark aura of Nico and his father. It would explain why he had that skull ring, that black sword that can fight creatures like that monster. Okay. Now that I think of it, I just got saved by the son of the death god. Weird.

No. Scratch that. 'Hades is the god of the Underworld not death himself.' Grandma had told me before about the Greek gods and had corrected that mistake loads of times.

The two deities glowered at me then I shut up. Persephone turned to Hades.

"Come on dear," Persephone chided. "When she dies, she'll easily repay her debt, won't she?"

Silence ensued.

Then Hades grimaced and waved his hand airily. He was about to leave with a satisfied Persephone when he turned to his son.

"You know what to do, Nico."

Nico nodded; his face visibly relaxed. Persephone winked at me curiously. Then I remembered her story: she was flower-collecting when the ground opened and Hades snatched her and dragged her to the Underworld. She ate a pomegranate, and now she stays half a year in the Underworld and the other half on Earth. The similarity of our cases (Underworld male dragging a female to his hidey-hole) was a bit scary. I just hope this Nico kid is as good as I read him to be.

...

"What's your name?"

Nico finally realized what he forgot. He slapped his forehead when he realized he didn't know what my name is, but I gave him a small smile.

"It's supposed to me Mizuki, but Jean is better since I'm in the USA," I told him.

Thanks to Persephone, I managed to worm my way out of the punishment of Hades. I'm not going to say I like Hades after that, but I did have a debt to the Underworld for sparing my life, and for one of its children saving my life. Wow, it is amazing how your life can change in a matter of hours. I had fleeting idea of wanting to see mom; if I was in the Underworld, then she'd be here, wouldn't she?

I mentioned this to my new companion, and he treated me to one of his seriously disturbing stares. But I could have sworn his resolve nearly broke when he told me no. He explained something about moms killed by the master bolt are not meant to be summoned but I didn't understand that. I had a sneaky feeling that he went through the same phase and I decided to drop it. Maybe some other time.

"And besides," he added, apparently relieved I had dropped the subject of moms. I still found it hard to believe that the Greek gods existed, had their HQ at the Empire State Tower, and had kids with humans. "I thought you wanted to know what is happening?"

"Yeah," I said grudgingly. It was true. But at least I was getting some questions answered. He was helping me walk, as I had bruised myself during my last monster encounter. I touched my stomach gingerly. "I still find it lucky you were around when that thing attacked."

He nodded absent-mindedly. "I know when people are dying. I just followed your signal."

"Signal?"

"It's a buzz in my ears," he explained. He looked rather closed about the subject so I chose not to open up questions.

"Are you familiar with Greek mythology?" Nico asked as he led the way outside the palace of the Underworld. It was a dark scary place complete with souls, hell hounds, skeletal guards and all that. Outside the windows were fields of strange-looking flowers. They were healthy, but they surely looked gloomy. Anyway, the palace was magnificent in a dark way.

I nodded, still watching the flowers sway to and fro. "My grandma told me a few things. But I didn't understand why I had to learn all about those gods, goddesses and heroes."

"I told you; they're real. They exist." Nico said plainly.

"Right," I said. I doubted grandma knew about the Greek gods being real. We entered a wide room, and on a corner, sat the huge three-headed hellhound I remembered to be Cerberus. Okay, this is getting really weird. Monsters, hell, hellhounds, demigods. What next?

"Most of us don't believe at first," Nico said. "But I'm not lying."

"If I accept that this is not a dream, what happens?" I challenged.

"Since we attract a lot of monsters, we need to learn how to survive," Nico explained. "That's why most train at Camp Half-blood. It's a safe place for us demigods."

"You said 'most'?"

"Some don't; it's their choice," he replied. We were silent for the next few minutes; he helped me walk, and I pondered what he told me. Then we left the palace grounds, and a river of black water and mist ran beside us.

"I'm taking you to camp. It's in New York," he told me shortly.

I shook my head and winced—it still hurts quite a bit. It still blew my mind how I who got stuck in the Pacific side of America could get to the Atlantic side. "My grandma is in New York."

My companion just grimaced and helped me climb up a narrow chasm he opened. "Then it's still a long way up."

"_You could be accepted... You could have friends at camp." _

~Percy Jackson, PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth.

**A/N: **

**Epic fail? Ah, well. Criticism is welcome, as long as it's constructive. **

**There isn't much here, but more is expected of the next chapter, where we get to see Poseidon's favourite son. It might take me long to post the next chapter, though. I have final exams coming up.**

**Just as a side note, this story is set after the fifth book, and it disregards the next half-blood series.**


	3. Ch 2 Don't forget your weapons!

**Poseidon's Daughter: Yamato Sui Jean**

**A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi**

**Disclaimer: haganoechibi does not own PJO.**

**A.N.: I couldn't resist.**

Chapter 2: Don't forget your weapons!

The journey upward was fine. Nico did most of the talking as he explained things to me. I found it strange that Olympus was actually sitting on top of the Empire State Tower, that the World Wars were influenced by demigods, and that the Beatles were Apollo's kids. I also found it strange that Hades had taken it easy on me by not wearing his helm of darkness when he addressed me.

I thanked Nico when we exited the Underworld and nearly jumped out of my skin when I looked around. We surprisingly ended up at New York Central Park. It was early morning and a few people were hanging out at the park, either jogging or just lounging. Everything was so foreign: the sign boards, the benches, the people, the trees, the cars and even the sky! I stood there for a moment, taking it all in.

Nico looked at me. "Now what?"

I winced as I realized that I didn't know exactly where grandma lived. I just knew she was somewhere in Manhattan.

Here I was, an injured Japanese girl in the big apple park. I was lost, or at least, I would have been if Nico didn't know where other demigods lived. Fortunately, one of them lived in Manhattan, and Nico led the way there. The demigod's name was Percy Jackson, and he lived with his mother, Sally, and stepfather, Paul Blowfish (at least that was what I heard; weird surname though).

Nico and Percy seemed to be good friends; the reception was warmer than I would have expected. Percy was surprised at first to have me, but he did let me inside all the same. He would have pestered me if Mr. Blowfish hadn't grabbed him and set off to the school. Percy gave me and Nico a look that said 'you're-going-to-tell-me-later.'

The Western apartment was almost similar to the ones in Japan, only with different labels and the absence of the low table and cushions. Mrs. Blowfish kissed Percy and Mr. Blowfish goodbye.

Mrs. Blowfish had been kind to give me a new set of clothes (the jeans and shirt were too large) as mine had been tattered and almost destroyed after my fiasco of a journey.

For some reason, I liked this woman. There was something so strong but warm about this person, and her smile was refreshing. Her smile was the best welcome greeting I had in America. She reminded me of my mom, and my breath got caught in my throat. It was still painful. I had a feeling that Nico had dropped by this very apartment more than a few times.

"Thank you, Mrs. Blowfish," I said in my best English accent, as she helped me put on a shirt and change my head bandage. Mrs. Blowfish laughed.

"It's Blofis," Mrs. Blofis corrected, smiling warmly and still stifling chuckles.

"Thank you, Mrs. Blofis," I corrected myself and followed her out of her bedroom and to the kitchen.

"You kids hungry?" she asked. Nico, who was sitting on the sofa, perked up.

As if on cue, my stomach grumbled very loudly and I felt my face blush. I realized I had had nothing but nectar and ambrosia (as Nico told me) for the past 24 hours. She made small talk as she knocked us up a decent meal.

"What's your name?" She asked me warmly as Nico came over.

"My name is Jean Yamato," I answered and we helped prepare food. "I'm Japanese."

"You're Japanese? That's interesting," she said. "I just met an old Japanese lady when I was doing my groceries yesterday."

"Really?" My senses perked up. It might be my grandma. I don't think there are a lot of Japanese in this area.

"She had startling gray eyes, just like Annabeth," Sally said as she served us a plate of blue waffles each. The waffles were topped with strawberries and blue syrup. Wow, must be a family thing. Nico did say that Percy was the son of the sea god, Poseidon. Then I registered what she said. Gray eyes? Old Japanese lady?

"Did she happen to state her name?" I asked as I picked up my fork.

"Something like Ya... Yam..."

"Yamato?" I prompted. Sally nodded.

"She IS my grandma!" I yelped and almost stood up but Sally forced me down on my chair and made me eat.

"Now, it happens that she left me a calling card," Sally said, with a thoughtful expression on her face. She pulled out a small card with what looked like kanji characters from her coat and handed it to me. I looked at it for a few seconds and the letters floated off the paper.

"Um, Sally-san? I can't read. I'm dyslexic," I said tentatively.

"Oh, right, demigod thing," she muttered, taking the card from me. When she read the name and then I got all excited that I nearly knocked my plate of blue waffles off the table. Thank goodness for my good reflexes!

"I'll go contact her and tell her that her granddaughter's here then?" She asked me with a smile.

I nodded and chewed on my waffle. I realized I hadn't been this positive for a while now. Sally decided to take the morning off to wait for my grandmother and I didn't protest. I enjoyed her company very much. It was comforting after all the horrors I encountered. I could see why Percy didn't seem like the typical male teen I would have thought, but then again, he is a demigod son of Poseidon (as Nico said), the sea god.

"She's going to pick you up in an hour," Sally told me amidst our breakfast. I smiled at her again and mouthed my thanks. I have to remember that I owed this woman a lot. She was like my mom in a million ways!

While we waited, she asked about my family and culture. She was intrigued with the Japanese culture, as she was writer who liked to explore in various fields. Then the discussion strayed to family.

"So you're a demigod too?" Sally asked. We were at the living room, whiling away time. I nodded.

"But I still don't know who my godly parent is," I said rather stiffly, developing a sudden interest at the flower vase.

"Didn't your parent tell you?" she asked and then realized she crossed a line, since I looked away and hung my head. My hair covered my pearl grey eyes. Right, my mom wasn't able to tell me because the plane crashed. Grandma had a LOT of explaining to do. Then I saw with my peripheral vision that Nico gave her a pointed look.

"Um, well, I wasn't able to tell Percy before he went to camp," she said, trying to cover up her mistake. "Your grandma had gray eyes; probably you and Annabeth are related?"

"Annabeth?" I asked. Wasn't she the girl I dreamt of?

"Daughter of Athena, official architect of Olympus," Nico answered. "All of Athena's daughters had grey eyes."

"Can't be," I told them. "I've lived with my mom and grandma all my life."

Sally peered at my eyes. "Yes, her eyes aren't as grey as Annabeth's though. I thought I saw a few green specks in them."

Nico glanced at me curiously. I was beginning to feel self-conscious when thankfully, the doorbell rang. Finally!

Sally opened the door and standing at the threshold was a familiar face: slanted gray eyes, straight white hair that was tied it a neat bun at the base of her head, angular features, oval face... It was that of my grandmother, Izumi Yamato.

"Come in!" Sally beckoned. My grandma bowed respectfully and went straight to me. I was locked in her tight embrace, and I felt a few tears drop. I had forgotten that she was surprisingly agile for a senior citizen, and that she dressed in a traditional Japanese sparring robe (she's a very able martial artist. Ha! Beat that!). I missed her, even if we had this love-hate relationship. Then she released me and turned to Sally.

"It seems the Fates have a strange way of working things," she told her. She bowed low again. "I owe you my granddaughter's life. Thank you, Blofisu-san."

"Oh, don't thank me too much!" Sally said, smiling. She waved a hand towards Nico, who looked like he wanted to disappear into the shadows when my grandmother gave him a calculating stare. "It was Nico who found Jean."

My grandmother shook his hand briefly and gazed knowingly into Nico's black eyes. Then her eyes strayed to his black sword and skull ring. I mean, what kind of twelve-year-old would carry those stuff? She must have thought the same thing I did: Nico was a hell boy.

"Thank you, Nico-kun," my grandma said in a more formal tone. Then she beckoned to me. "Come, my child."

I stood up and followed her out the apartment. I bowed to my two saviours before leaving.

...

I loved grandma's new apartment. It wasn't American at all. It was a piece of Japan in the midst of bustling NYC. Everything was traditionally Oriental, from her threshold, sitting room, tables, cushions, you name it! It reminded so much of Japan, and of mom.

It had been several days since her passing and the wounds were starting to heal. They were harder to cure than my presently healed abdominal and head injuries. I just noticed how strange grandma was behaving when she nursed me. She seemed rather distant and troubled. It was probably because of what Nico and Sally Blofis told me. But I found it strange that she didn't cry for mom. It's like... she didn't even care.

One afternoon when I was fully healed, we sat at the sitting room for a serious conversation. I tapped a finger on the table impatiently and sipped my hot drink. Grandma's eyes were serious and her brows knitted together.

"Tell me everything that happened."

I narrated everything, from the lightning, the plane crash, the dream, the beach, the empousai, the Underworld, Central Park and me being a demigod. Grandma muttered a few things like "Zeus' lightning," "half-bloods," and "the door of Orpheus." Conclusion? Grandma knew I am a half-blood all along. And she DIDN'T tell me.

"Grandma? Mom wanted to tell me something before the plane crashed," I said. "Then Nico and Mrs. Blofis told me I'm a half-blood."

"Did that Nico boy explain anything to you?" she asked. I nodded. She just made a grim expression and sipped her tea.

"I don't like that kid," my grandma said after a few minutes.

"Nico is the son of Hades," I muttered, glaring at my tea cup. So what if you're the son of the Underworld god?

"I told her we should have explained it all before we moved here!" grandma exclaimed, more to herself than to anyone. "And why did she allow you to be on a plane! She knew she's not supposed to be!"

Grandma heaved a sigh. Then she reached and held my hand.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through all this not knowing. It's my fault, I should have told you," she said. Her eyes filled with remorse and I looked away. I was hurt, well, more angry than hurt. Why did they have to keep it a secret?

"That's why you've been trying to train me in mythology, in Greek, and in defending myself," I realized out loud. "You knew I was a half-blood who needed training because I get attacked by monsters, and all this time YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?"

"It's never easy to raise a special child such as you and me," grandma explained hurriedly. "My parents threw me out as soon as I came of age. I was luckier because I managed to stumble upon monks so I was able to train."

My ears perked up. "You said 'a special child such as you and me.' YOU'RE A HALF-BLOOD TOO?"

"I'm so sorry," my grandma said morosely. Suddenly, her face looked older and weaker than I had ever seen her. But my heart hardened. I withdrew my hand from hers and stood up.

"If you choose to train at Camp Half-blood, I won't stop you," grandma said. She looked weaker than ever.

"You even know about the camp!" I cried out loud, standing up.

"Just one more thing: who was your immortal parent?" I asked, meeting her gaze. Somehow, I already knew the answer.

"Athena told me everything, from the camp to the whereabouts of Olympus," she explained. My eyes narrowed and filled with hurt.

"Children of the wisdom goddess should be wise," I said and stormed out of the apartment with my survival bag. I shunned the thought that it was grandma who thought of keeping survival bags at the ready. I was just so angry at her, at mom. I probably even imagined that I heard sobs from the room I just left.

...

I never thought I'd run away at age twelve. I run away from my grandma, from all the hurt from my familial relations. I hated how they didn't tell me about what I am. I hated how mom and grandma had spent all those years keeping that secret.

I had barely gone out of the building and worried about how to get to camp when I ran into another demigod and his companion, who was dressed in baggy jeans, a loose sweater and a huge cap.

"Running away?" the demigod asked with a hint of a grin.

"It's Percy, right?" I shifted the strap of my survival kit/bag uncomfortably.

"Yeah," he confirmed. He pointed at his companion. "And this is Grover, my best friend."

"Hi," Grover greeted. His smile widened at Percy's description. He puffed out his chest as I shook his hand. "Nice eyes. She's probably Annabeth's sister."

I slapped myself for not asking grandma about the identity of my father.

"I don't know, Grover," Percy said with a dark tone. It was as if he knew something. "Annabeth has a theory."

"Annabeth? Daughter of Athena?" I piped up. Percy blushed.

"Never mind," he said hastily, waving his arms. I frowned at the rejection. "You're our concern. You need a ride to camp but don't know how to get there?"

I nodded grudgingly. In a few minutes, I had Grover accompany me to the long ride to Camp Half-blood. Percy said he'd catch up. The journey seemed promising; no hindrances so far. There I was wrong.

The bus that took us to Half-blood hill was ordinary enough, with a good old driver and a number of passengers. There was a kid sitting at the back, and he seemed bright and happy enough, which was strange for a kid travelling alone. He stared at us when Grover led me to a seat beside him.

He sniffed at us eagerly during the ride, as if we were something yummy to the nose. I tried not to sit too near to him. Grover nibbled at his soft drink can. I was horrified to see him swallow the rest of the can, but he explained that it was normal for him. I thought he would choke, but he said he was fine.

I was about to ask Grover if what kind of creature he was while the kid did something very strange. He stared at us. And transformed. Into a dog. With large fangs protruding from black snouts. And brown eyes. And pointed ears. And a sea lion body. And a stumpy legs. And human-like hands with sharp claws for nails. Transformed isn't really the right word, but it's the best to describe how this little kid turned out to be what Grover called a telekhine.

Grover quickly grabbed and dragged me by the hand towards the exit. We got off the bus okay, but the kid-dog was still there; apparently he got off the bus via a smashed window. He was now screaming at us. Yeah, screaming.

"Jean, right?" Grover asked as he ran away from the screaming kid-monster.

"Yeah?" I panted.

"Got any weapons?" he asked. I shook my head. Oh shoot, I left my weapon of choice at grandma's place: my arnis. I mentally slapped myself for not remembering to bring it after all my lessons with grandma, who brought it with her when she migrated to the US.

Grover pulled out a reed pipe. I didn't understand how it could be used as a weapon.

"What do we have to do?" I asked Grover, who stared at me in surprise when he saw the absence of shock on my face. I'd seen the Underworld beings and it would take a lot to freak me out now.

"We have to get past Half-blood Hill," Grover told me. He pointed at one of the hills in the distance with a pine tree sitting right at the top.

The telekhine was chasing after us, but it was far behind. I wasn't too worried until I saw no less than six armed telekhines blocking our way to the hill. That was when Grover played music on his reed pipe.

Suddenly the grass started to go haywire: they grew and enlarged big enough and long enough to trap a few of the telekhines, but there were still three more. Two of them came at me from opposite directions, and I jumped out of the way at the last minute. They collided with a sickening crunch.

The other telekhine was wiser. He managed to get a chunk out of my jacket when he attacked. I managed to evade but I got a few scratches. The pain sent a signal to my brain, and something clicked into place. I felt a rush of adrenaline (at least that's what I've read) and thought, 'I'm not going to run away this time. I'm going to fight. I'm not going to be helpless.' But how can I fight without a weapon? The telekhine faced me with a grin, as if he knew I couldn't fight him.

Just then the telekhine shrieked in pain. It doubled over, and I saw a familiar knife from it. It was black, long, pointed, symmetrical, and had a ring at the end of its handle: a kunai. A characteristic whack knocked me to my senses. Who else could use a kunai? A ninja cosplayer? Unlikely.

Sure enough, Izumi Yamato, my grandma, was standing there, and she was looking pretty grumpy. I grabbed the knife from the fallen telekhine and started to fight the other free telekhine with my grandma, who grabbed the kunai from me.

She held out my arnis. MY ARNIS!

"I can't trust you with my knife, little Jeanie," she said with a grin. I was glad she used my pet name. I made to grab at the arnis, but she held on. "Your lesson?"

"Don't leave your weapons behind," I said, barely managing not to roll my eyes.

Without further ado, I grabbed my arnis from her and started whacking the nearest telekhine. Whacking isn't the best term for it, actually. Fighting with sticks is a lot more than just whacking. But anyhow, I managed to disorient my opponent and Grandma swiftly attacked it with a few well-placed incisions. Poof! The telekhine just turned into tele-dust!

I briefly enjoyed the first time I actually fought a monster (and won) when one of them hit me at the back of the head. Right at my newly healed head wound. Just when I thought I had been somewhat useful in a fight, I let my guard down.

"Ow!" I yelled in pain.

My body crumpled to the ground as the telekhine proceeded to gobble me up. Grandma and Grover hurried forward to fight it. I saw her place a few stabs at the arm. I blinked and rolled to kneeling position in surprise when I saw a disembodied telekhine hand a few feet from me. Wow, grandma was on a roll.

Another few feet away, the telekhine bared its fangs at grandma and Grover threateningly. But he charged at me. Grandma ran after the monster and sent her knife flying towards it. The knife pierced the black skin of the monster, who whined in pain. I took this moment to stab the monster right in his brown eyes. Grover hurried towards us, playing his reed pipe as he came. He trapped the monster in vines just as grandma and I recovered our weapons.

I was about to fall to the ground when someone caught me by the armpit. I shook my head awake (gently) to see grandma and Grover were staring at me with wide eyes.

"I'm okay," I told them weakly as both companions let out sighs of relief. My head felt really heavy. But we were surrounded by a pile of monsters has-beens' dust. Grover, grandma and I stood side-by-side, breathing heavily. We did it.

"Are they dead?" I asked, still breathing heavily and leaning on grandma.

"They'll be back; monsters reappear after they die," Grover said, panting. I stared at Grover. I didn't know how useful reed pipes could be in a fight until I saw him using it. Wait, is he a half-blood too?

Before I could ask, grandma composed herself and hid her kunai. How she came here I didn't know, but I was glad she did come and brought my weapon. She cleared her throat loudly for attention.

"Hello," Grover greeted, extending his hand to grandma. "You're a half-blood too?"

"Izumi Yamato, daughter of Athena," grandma explained, taking Grover's outstretched hand briefly. Grandma's chest puffed out proudly when she revealed her godly parent. My insides churned as I remembered the conversation me and my grandma had earlier. I felt like a jerk just by running away. And to think that she did nurse me for almost all my life...

"I'm Grover, satyr," Grover said. WAAAAAIT. A satyr? Did my ears go haywire or is Grover a half-goat half-man?

"You're a satyr?" I exclaimed, my eyes wide. Grover nodded meekly. That explained the can-eating.

"You two had best get yourselves to camp before any monsters come close," grandma said. Then she turned to me with a familiar steely glint in her eye. "And as for you... I want you to train as hard as you can—no excuses!"

I cringed. Trust my grandma's high-standards to be imposed on me. That was normal for her, and I was glad of that because it proved that she wasn't mad at me. The wound I sustained when I learned that my elders kept a big secret from me had started healing, but it may take more time for it to completely heal, what with mother gone. But nevertheless, I hugged my grandma and decided to leave Chiron's identity for later. "Thanks, grandma. I'm sorry for running away."

Grandma grimaced. "Let's call a truce for now. But I don't want to hear that you're lagging behind! Train. You owe me that much."

"_I couldn't help feeling sorry for the di Angelos. I remembered what it was like for me when I first learned I was a demigod."_

~Percy Jackson, PJO: The Titan's Curse.

**A.N.: Yay, Jean finally gets to camp in the next chap!**


	4. Ch 3 Camp Half Blood

**Poseidon's Daughter: Yamato Sui Jean**

**A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi**

**Disclaimer: haganoechibi does not own PJO.**

**A.N.: ****Finally, she reaches Camp Half-blood.**

"_New demigods were popping up all over the place-not just in America, but in a lot of other countries as well."_

~Percy Jackson, PJO: The Last Olympian

**Chapter 3: Camp Half-blood, A Red-eyed Girl, and me**

The camp looked like your regular summer camp, but at the same time, not so. You don't get to see a dragon by a pine tree bearing the Golden Fleece in ordinary camps, plus a climbing wall with lava pouring down it, plus a few winged horses or pegasi (unless I was wrong) flying around. And you don't get to see kids using bronze swords, bow and arrows, and armor while fending off a sea monster.

Grover led me to a big house, which was actually called (drum roll please) Big House. A bearded half-man-half-horse stood at the threshold. Being used to strange creatures by now, I just stared at him, though I found it strange to see a man with a ponytail swishing side to side. Okay. I know. Not funny.

"Jean, this is Chiron, the activities director," Grover introduced. Oh, so he was Chiron. "Chiron, this is Jean Yamato."

"The centaur sensei?" I blurted out loud. Chiron inclined his head with a small smile. But when Grover stared at me, I hastily added, "I meant, centaur teacher, sorry."

"Jean Yamato?" Chiron asked, eyeing my arnis. We shook hands briefly before he turned to Grover. Chiron looked more worried than serious. "I thought you had sent satyrs in other countries. I remember you sending a satyr to Japan."

Grover's brows knitted together. "Maybe he couldn't get in touch."

"I hope so," Chiron murmured. "If not, it means more trouble than we may think."

I opened my mouth to ask, but Chiron held up a hand. "Go on and give her a tour after the orientation video. She goes to Cabin Eleven for now."

After treating my injuries, Chiron sent me off to an hour of watching heroes and all that. Grover munched on an aluminum can again as we went through the sites of the camp. A few campers actually came over and said hello, but a few just ignored us. Some even gave me a strange look, especially the group with grey eyes and blonde hair.

"Everyone seems nice," I remarked as we walked away from the blonde-haired group. Grover just smiled.

"You haven't met the Ares kids yet," he told me, and his look told me to take his warning seriously.

We reached the cabins area, where the cabins made a complete ring in the clearing. While I thought there were supposed to be twelve Olympians, I was startled to see more than twelve cabins. Grover told me that they belonged to minor gods and goddesses, and they were quite new. He explained how only Artemis, Hera and Zeus were the only empty cabins, and I noticed how reverent he was in saying Artemis' name. Maybe it's because it's a nature boy thing.

Grover led me to one of the cabins forming a circle in the clearing. It was easily one of the oldest, and one of the most used. Peeling brown paint decorated its outer walls, while a spear with two snakes entwined around it was to be seen above the doorway. I remember grandma calling it a caduceus, the symbol of Hermes.

"This is Cabin Eleven Hermes," Grover told me and I studied the empty cabin. Most of the campers would probably be at school or somewhere around the camp. But when we went in, two curly brown-haired kids were inside. They were hunched over something we couldn't see but they looked up when Grover cleared his throat.

"Hey Grover!" cried one while the other hid whatever they were doing as fast as he could, but I thought I saw a plan or something.

Grover held up his palms at the boys who sported identical grins. "I don't want to know what you're scheming, but I'm here to drop her off."

"Undetermined?" asked twin number one.

"Claimed?" the offered twin number two.

"Undetermined," declared Grover the satyr. Both boys suppressed groans. I didn't understand what they were talking about and I made a point to ask about someone later on. "This is Jean Yamato, a new cabin mate. Jean, this is Travis and Connor Stoll, sons of Hermes."

Grover pointed at the respective twin, and I noted that Connor was slightly shorter than Travis. I had to remember that. I shook their hands briefly, and I couldn't ignore the sinister mischievous look in their brown eyes.

"Well, she's all yours," Grover said, and he exited the cabin with a wave. The twins grinned as they welcomed me inside.

"Welcome to the Hermes cabin!" invited Travis.

"Drop your things on any free space and make yourself at home!" said Connor. I couldn't find any, I wanted to tell him.

"So, you're Japanese... know any pranks?" Travis (unless I'm wrong) asked, eyes beaming. Did I, or did I not meet the mischief-makers of camp half-blood?

…

Travis and Connor weren't so pleased when they found out I didn't know any pranks. It's not like I could pull off any; my grandma saw to that. The twins introduced me to the Hermes cabin members during lunch and I found that the Hermes cabin was easily the most crowded. Travis explained that the Hermes, being the god of travellers, accepts all undetermined children, like me, or children who weren't claimed by the immortal parents.

Then I discovered that the nymphs served the food, and that you get to choose whatever non-alcoholic drink you wanted. I was about to sip my bowl of ramen when all the members stood up and approached the camp fire. I followed them there, where we torched a portion of our food for the gods.

'Whoever you are, please accept my offering,' I prayed as I poured some of the soup and noodles into the fire. I didn't understand why we needed to burn food because in Japan we certainly didn't. One of the senior campers told me it was because the gods liked the smell. Why the gods would like the smell of burnt noodles, I would never know, though I was taken aback when I caught a whiff of the fumes. It didn't smell like burnt food; I could have sworn I smelled loads of sushi, ramen, onigiris and chocolate.

I tried the ramen and it was really good. It tasted pleasant; probably it was because the other pollutants haven't gotten to its source yet. The moment I tasted it, my memories came flooding back to me; how I missed Japan and mom, and those family moments with grandma studying mythology and self-defense. Everything just changed so fast. Now I discovered that the Greek gods were real and that I'm a half-blood, one of the Greek god's children with mortals.

When I was done, I scanned the other tables. The Athena table contained people who looked like one big family of grey eyed blond heads. All of them had the same calculating critical gaze and stormy gray eyes almost similar to mine. I remembered grandma, and wondered how she could find her place there. Though I guess she wouldn't find that hard, being a daughter of Athena and all.

A few kids from other cabins belonging to minor gods and goddesses were there as well, though their benches looked newer than the Hermes cabins'. There were children of Hecate, Aeolus, Macaria, Hebe, Morpheus... and I didn't even know the others!

The Aphrodite table were full of really pretty girls and handsome guys. Most of them weren't good at fighting as I was to discover; they were children of the goddess of love and beauty. But they can be complete snobs and obsessive-compulsive with regards to appearance.

The Apollo table were having a mini-concert while the Hephaestus table tampered with their latest inventions. Right, Apollo is the god of the sun, music, and poetry while Hephaestus had control of the underwater forges. The Ares kids weren't as war-freaks as I would have expected (or at least not yet). One of the seniors warned me against getting on their bad side, especially Clarisse La Rue and one of her younger sisters, Arianne Valle.

The Zeus, Hera, Poseidon and Artemis tables were empty. But there was one table that was almost empty: the Hades table. It had only one occupant: Nico di Angelo. But before I could dwell on how I could say hello, someone tapped my shoulder.

"I'm Mikai. You're Jean, right?" a Hermes camper asked. I nodded. Friendly much? I looked in her dark brown eyes. She was a young girl of about ten and she had this lost look on her face, which reminded me of myself a few days ago.

"You're undetermined too?" she asked me. I nodded. "Do you know who your godly parent is?"

There was something in the way she said the last query that made me wonder who my parent is too. Possibly the longing? The poor girl just seemed so lost, despite the hospitality of the Hermes kids.

"I don't know," I admitted. Then she gazed in my own green-grey eyes and hung her head.

"You're probably Athena's daughter. You have grey eyes," she told me sadly. "I don't know who my mother is. Daddy died a few weeks ago."

"I'm not Athena's daughter, my mom knew that much," I told her with a wink and she smiled a little. Though it was slightly comforting to think that I wasn't alone in the 'lost mortal parent' category, I felt sorry for her that I patted her shoulder and added, "Let's go find out together."

…

After lunch, I started to attend camp activities with the Hermes kids. Everything was still so new to me, but yet I felt at home. Back in Japan, where I attended special classes for kids because of my dyslexia and ADHD (which I now knew to be signs of being a half-blood), I was treated like something potentially dangerous by peers. But here, having ADHD and dyslexia was normal, and essential. The dyslexia was due to the half-blood's ability to understand Ancient Greek, while the ADHD was due to enhanced battle awareness. I was strongly reminded of an anime [1] featuring coordinators... but that's another story.

First up was swordsmanship. I was lent a broadsword which I had a lot of trouble holding. The unbalanced sword felt cold and unfriendly in my hand. I tried, I really did. I was able to do basic stuff like slashing and stabbing but every time I tried a slightly more complex move, I'd do it wrongly or the sword would fall out of my hand. I just couldn't get it right!

"I'm no good with a broad sword," I complained we stepped out of the arena. My hands were itching to use my arnis, which were slung on my back.

"Maybe you're Apollo's kid," the Mikai told me, rekindling my curiosity in finding out who my godly parent was. "Try using a bow and arrow."

I did try it, and I hit a few targets. But when I made Chiron do a tap dance after attempting an arrow shower, I shot him an apologetic glance and stepped out of the archery range with Mikai. Several Apollo kids sniggered. Okay, maybe not. Mikai decided to watch me in foot racing with the tree nymphs. It was more successful, as I had managed to run alongside the tree nymphs, one of which congratulated me that I'd be able to run away from lovesick gods by the time I'd finished a few months of training.

Later, I tried rock climbing with Mikai. Grover and the other satyrs made it _look _easy. I was excited by the extra challenge the camp thought of: lava. Mikai wasn't as enthusiastic, but she tried it all the same. Chiron supervised me again; he probably wanted to make sure I didn't hurt any other campers. When my turn came, I lost my grip on my rock halfway up. Luckily, I was able to grab a rock before anything other than my left foot got submerged in the lava. Mikai screamed.

Oh gods. I expected to be severely injured. I expected pain. But my foot just felt strangely warm. Chiron and several satyrs ran towards me, thinking I was burned. Sure enough, when I lifted my left leg, my submerged jeans and trainers were no longer there. But my foot wasn't hurt at all. It still looked normal, maybe a bit reddish.

Chiron had me off the climbing wall in no time. He checked my foot and when he decided it was fine, he glanced at me questioningly.

"Are you sure you have no idea who your immortal parent is?" he asked me and I shook my head. I did have Athena's genes in me via grandma, but I don't think it counts. Mikai stared at me in wonder, as did several campers. After Chiron-sensei sent us off, I left Mikai at the Hermes cabin after taking a break there (and getting myself a new pair of trainers from my survival bag).

I decided to practice my arnis forms before I call it a day. The moment the wood got in contact with my hand, I felt an immediate surge of warmth. Each strike felt good, it gave me comfort after that not-so-good day.

"Nice dancing sticks," a deep voice said. An electric current coursed through my nerves. DANCING STICKS?

"Excuse me," I said politely, turning to the speaker. "I didn't quite hear what you said."

I gulped when I saw Arianne of the Ares cabin in her orange camp half blood shirt, beige shorts, trainers and a bandanna keeping her black hair off her face. She's the bully, I guess, or maybe one of them. Unlike Clarisse, who had a big buffed body, Arianne had a lean muscular body, and tanned skin. I guessed she took those Western features from Ares, her father. What bothered me was her voice. I've never even met a girl with a deep male-like voice before! But still... compared to her, my thin Japanese body looked like a twig next to a tree trunk.

"I heard you're horrible with broadswords, ickle Jap. Care to dance with your walking sticks instead?" she asked me tauntingly with her bronze sword in hand.

She swiftly lunged at me at the last word and I quickly blocked her offense with my left. Man, why did they like to pick on newbies?

"No thanks!" I said with quick swipe to her helmet, which collided with my arnis like a bell. I seized this chance to hit her not-so-vital points: knees, shoulders, chest, stomach and hands. The latter made her drop her sword with an unceremonious _clang_. I kicked it away. But it didn't take long for Ariane to recover from her daze.

"Are you sure you're a half-blood?" she asked menacingly, unsheathing a dagger from her belt. Her moves this time were more dangerous and fierce. I tried to block but one of them cut a neat slit on my thigh. It wasn't very deep, but it still hurt.

"Ow!" I gasped as red stained my jeans. Arianne grinned.

"Wonder who your parent is? Must feel bad right now," she yelled. I felt pain both physically because of the wound and emotionally because my immortal parent had failed to claim me at present. But something came with the pain: a surge of energy, like the fighting spirit inside finally awoke.

I attacked her with more force this time, and my moves were more lethal. It was her turn to block. But even with my adrenaline rush, she was tough to beat. Both of us were panting and my thigh wound throbbed harder than ever, when her fist decided to land a punch on my face but I swiped at it again with my arnis. It was a diversion; her sweaty right dagger hand almost came in contact with my neck not to kill but defeat.

'No!' I thought, images of my grandma and mother flashing in my mind's eye. 'I won't lose. Not here. Not now. Not to her.'

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. I felt a particularly strong tug in my gut and focused on her sweaty right arm. I knew it was false hope, but I willed the sweaty arm to stop. Whatever happened next, I didn't exactly understand, but Arianne's dagger arm wouldn't move; it was just suspended there in mid air. Ariane's eyes widened.

"What the—"

I seized my chance and displaced her dagger with a strike to her forearm. Before she knew it, I had my arnis at her neck.

Dead silence ensued, except for our heavy breathing. I barely felt the other campers' eyes on us when I released my opponent and let her fall back. Picking up her weapons, she eyes me with narrowed, burning brown eyes.

"I'm not done with you, midget," she muttered in a low dangerous voice. Fury was etched on her face. I thought she was about to attack; if she would, I won't be able to block this time. After I released her arm, I felt really tired. I was on my knees and leaning on my arnis for support. The energy surge was gone.

"I think she's had enough for today," a familiar voice said, making me jump. Nico di Angelo stood beside me, looking pointedly at Ariane. It also helped that Nico was treating her to one of his death glares. Slowly, Ariane retreated, experimentally flexing her dagger arm.

Wait, what was Nico doing at the arena? Had he been watching? But before I could say anything, all of the campers stared at something above my head. I followed their gaze and saw a green three-pronged fork: a trident, the symbol of Poseidon.

That was it? That was how a half-blood's claimed? The symbol of your parent just appeared above your head?

_Clip-clop-clip-clop-clip-clop._ The sound of hooves meant either Chiron, or a lot of satyrs. The former then stood in front of me, with triumph in his eyes. He had probably guessed who my parent was.

"Hail Sui Jean Yamato, daughter of the sea god," Chiron declared. Then he clapped me on the back.

So I'd been claimed. But I was still exhausted.

"So tired," I moaned. My grip on my arnis loosened, my eyelids drooped and my body just wanted to sleep. Chiron said something I couldn't comprehend. Then I felt Nico grab me by the arms and half-carry me to who-knows-where. The clip-clop sound behind us meant Chiron followed. I was half-conscious when Nico threw me into what looked like running water and I instantly felt awake. Whatever fatigue I felt was gone.

"Hey!"

I stood up, expecting to be drenched, but I was dry. And that was how I discovered that being a child of Poseidon gave you that ability of being not being wet if you don't want to. A few moments later, my thigh wound was nothing but a pink scar that eventually disappeared.

"What did you do to Ariane?" Chiron demanded, his white ponytail swishing side to side. That meant he was intrigued. I was strongly reminded of a dog wagging its tail.

I tried not to focus on his swishing ponytail. "I don't know. It was fuzzy."

"Her arm froze in mid-attack," Nico suggested.

"Maybe," I said, examining my now healed thigh wound. I thought hard.

"I'm not sure. Children of Poseidon can control water, right?" I began. I still couldn't directly call myself a child of Poseidon. It just sounded unfamiliar and... strange. "So maybe... I controlled the water in her arm?"

"How?" Chiron asked. His ponytail still swished from left to right, and it took a lot of effort not to giggle.

"I can't remember how," I said, shaking my head. The energy surge was gone, and I don't feel it coming back soon. Then I remembered something. "And where's my arnis?"

"Oops. We kinda left it at the arena," Nico told me sheepishly.

"WHAT!" I exclaimed in outrage. I'd left my weapons again! I mentally cursed myself. After what happened earlier... AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I half-ran on the way back from the forest, leaving Nico and Chiron at the creek. I passed by the camp fire area, and when I got there, I saw a little girl in a brown dress tending to the flames. She was staring at me with red eyes; red with warmth, not fury. It was hypnotic; I approached her in curiosity.

"Hello." I bowed and knelt beside her. All thoughts of my arnis disappeared from my head.

Then a sensation of homesickness tugged at my gut. I missed Japan, but then I thought the camp wasn't really bad. In a rush of brain action, I realized that this mysterious girl with strange glowing red eyes like fire wasn't human. A girl in the camp, with glowing red eyes, was tending the flames. The depth in her crimson eyes didn't scare me, but the ageless knowing expression she radiated was enough to prove that she was a goddess: Lady Hestia of the hearth. Who else?

"Greetings young one," the girl said. Her voice was deep and ageless. "You are one of the few who chose to talk with me."

Her eyes returned to the flame. "Most never do."

"Lady Hestia, sometimes I cannot believe that all these busy campers cannot notice a striking creature such as you, especially in the form of a child."

The girl smiled. "You are Poseidon's daughter, but yet you have another Olympian's blood in you. You see how unique beings are? How immortals and mortals are tied together?"

I nodded. "Yes, my grandmother is Lady Athena's daughter."

"Ah, yes, the mark of the wise," she said, looking into my green-gray eyes. The conversation was turning a bit uncomfortable by the minute. I decided to change the topic.

"My lady, who was the last demigod who approached you?" I asked. Her eyes focused somewhere beyond me.

"The demigod who saved you," she answered slowly. Her eyes searched mine, which showed that I understood her. Okay, so Nico talked to Hestia. "And because of that decision, his and your lives will be changed, more than you could ever know."

I pretended I did not feel awkward about it. My stomach felt like it was a butterfly house. I didn't want to believe in what she said, but my instincts told me it was true.

"Your mentor is not here. You must go, young one," Hestia said as she stood up. "Train with your grandmother and tell her I send my regards."

"O-okay." I stood up and bowed before leaving her. I swear she had her glowing red eyes on me as I walked away.

...

The mention of grandma made thoughts of my arnis crashing in my head. I tried searching the forest again, and it was growing dark when I decided to walk back defeated to the cabins. There was no use in searching when I couldn't see anything. I kneaded my head and groaned. Those arnis were customized for me! What a way to lose my long time weapon.

"Ickle Jap," a voice called. Oh no...

"Guess who found your dancing sticks!" Arianne taunted. My arnis were propped against a rock and Arianne's big fat foot was stepping on them. I took a step towards her. She stepped harder. The wood bent slightly, and I thought I heard a crack. I winced.

"_Yamete_!" I yelled. "Quit it!"

"And if I don't?" she challenged. "Watcha gonna do?"

Sweat trickled down my nape. I'm weaponless. The bully had me at her mercy. She was eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

I took another careful step forward. She stepped harder.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"Just wanted to know what happened," she said simply. She stepped harder. The arnis looked like it was about to break.

"Wait!" I gasped out loud, my arm outstretched. "I-controlled-the-water-in-your-arm-I-did-nothing-else-let-my-arnis-go!"

"And I wanted to get back at you," Arianne continued as if I didn't speak. Her face scrunched up and there was nothing else I could do. I realized what she had in mind at the exact moment she did it. The arnis gave way with a resounding crack.

All I could process was that the weapon I had wielded for half my life lay on the cold unyielding soil in four broken pieces because I made the single error of leaving my weapon. Suddenly, I couldn't think properly. I forgot that she was larger than me, and that she had loads of experience in fighting. My body acted on its own accord. My reflexes took over. The manic energy possessed me again, only this time, I controlled the water in her whole body. Ariane seized up, and I pinned her against a tree.

Tears clouded my vision but I saw that Ariane had the decency to look surprised and slightly afraid. "You didn't have to break my arnis! I would have apologized!"

My eyes turned to my broken weapons. "They're irreplaceable. And you think you could just step on them!"

It took sometime before my heavy breathing subsided. Then I came to notice a dryad glaring at me. Oops. Her tree. Not mine.

"Sorry," I muttered quietly and released Arianne who ran all out to the commons area. The dryad gave me a haughty look and disappeared, leaving me alone in the dark. My weapons still lay there. Broken.

I was eternally tired, but I picked up my weapons and walked away. I tried walking back to the creek Nico threw me in, but instead I found the beach. The sea water beckoned to me, comforting me. I moved to the water, and sat down. I felt stronger, but I still grieved. I let my arnis float away to open sea, like an offering for my struggle. It symbolized me, and all the things I had been through. I realized I was broken too.

My family had been broken when grandma decided to move to NYC, and when mom died. I had been broken when I found out about the biggest secret of my elders. The wound still hurt. That was one wound that even the ocean could not heal in an instant, even if grandma helped me against those telekhines.

I asked myself: do I really want this? Do I really want to be half-blood and be a hero, as a lot of them say? I just wanted to be a normal girl, to lead a normal life, and to have a decent circle of friends. Why did mom have to choose Poseidon of all men? If she hadn't, I would have to put up with all this. Mom didn't have to die that way. But then, life would be boring. And I guess I don't have any choice in being Poseidon's daughter. Calling myself Poseidon's kid still feels so unfamiliar.

How long I stayed on the beach, I didn't know. But I perked up when I saw a huge creature coming out of the water. It was walking at first, but then it was running towards me, and before I knew it, it had me in its muscle-bound arms. To him, it was probably hugging, but to me, it was more like strangling.

"SISTER!" It yelled. "Tyson meets you at last!"

Startled, I stared at him with wide eyes. I didn't remember Percy, Chiron, nor Nico speaking of a brother. The thing is, he didn't look human. In fact, he had one big brown eye at the center of his head.

"Little sister!" Tyson yelled, and Tyson set me gently on the ground. Wait. One big brown eye. Big body. Misshapen face. Brown hair. Calloused hands. Wait a minute. Am I just dreaming? "Percy asked to come over when he discovered you are sister!"

Percy's here?

"Jeanie?" Tyson asked, his expression curious, almost disappointed. I nodded, my eyes still wide with shock, and my mouth still hung open. Yeah, I wasn't dreaming. Slowly, my lips formed a big wide grin.

"My brother's a Cyclops? COOL!"

...

Things looked up after that. Tyson earned a lot of stares from the campers when we joined Percy at the Poseidon table halfway through dinner. My eyes strayed towards the crowded Hermes table, and found Mikai's back turned towards me. As for Percy, he did say he was going to catch up. It was strange to call Percy a brother because we didn't look anything alike. I shook his hand briefly when I sat down opposite him.

"Hello half-sister," Percy greeted when I let go of his hand. "Annabeth—"

Whatever Annabeth was, I wasn't able to find out because Tyson swept Percy up in a bear hug too, and he didn't look too comfortable, but both parties were happy. When Tyson released him, Percy took some time to breathe before sitting back on the bench beside Tyson.

"Annabeth isn't coming?" Tyson asked Percy, who shook his head. I noticed a streak of annoyance, like when a fly lands on your skin, when I hear Annabeth's name, but I don't know why and I certainly don't want to tell anybody.

"Sorry, Tyson. Maybe next time," Percy comforted his brother by patting him on the back. I grinned at the sight of them. It was kind of adorable to see a small human kid patting a big Cyclops on the back.

After the usual 'food-torching', Tyson and I returned to our table, where Percy was enjoying his glass of blue liquid.

"Annabeth was right," Percy mused as he raised his glass of blue cherry coke. He studied my features, particularly my grey eyes.

I swallowed my fourth piece of sushi before I casually said, "Annabeth is Athena's daughter, right? I dreamt about her."

Percy choked midway through drinking, and it took him a minute to recover.

"What did you see in your dream?" he asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What's with it? Dreams are just dreams," I said defiantly.

"Not for demigods; what we dream actually happens, like an out-of-body experience," Percy told me as if he'd been in one of those loads of times. "What did you dream about?"

I frowned as I tried to remember. "I saw two big dudes arguing, and Annabeth walked in on them."

"Who were those two dudes?"

"One was wearing a tuxedo. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. A big scary bolt." I told him. Percy's eyes brightened.

"And the other?" he asked eagerly.

"He looked like a surfer dude. He had eye crinkles right here," I said, pointing to the outer sides of my eyes. "You know them?"

Laughing, Percy nodded and said, "The one with the lightning bolt is Zeus while the surfer dude"-he snorted-"is our dad."

"You saw dad?" Tyson exclaimed. Oh, so the surfer dude is dad. Not really surprising though. "He was upset the other day. He was scary."

Our attention focused on Tyson, who looked a bit affronted. "He was mad at Zeus for using his bolt on Jeanie."

"WHAT!" I yelled out loud that a few nearby tables actually stared. I didn't care; all I knew was that Zeus was the one who sent the lightning bolt on the plane I was in, killing mom, and who knows how many innocent people. I felt a surge of anger towards Zeus that I didn't even know I stood up. Percy and Tyson yanked me back to my seat.

"That's why they Zeus and Poseidon were arguing on something about the sky domain, a child and lightning," I cried out. I buried my face in my right palm, a habit I do when I'm really frustrated to stop the tears. Then my fingers kneaded my temples. "They were arguing about me. Zeus used the lightning bolt on the plane. And... And..."

"You came here by plane?" Percy hissed, his eyes wide in alarm. I nodded, and he slapped his palm to his face.

"Okay, rule number one. Poseidon's domain is the sea. Zeus has the sky and Hades has the Underworld," Percy began in a serious tone. "Rule number two. Poseidon's kids don't trespass in Zeus' domain. It works for the Hades kids as well. That's probably why your plane got hit by lightning in the first place."

The underlying message was harder to take in. I felt another surge of anger at Zeus. Mom died because of me being a kid of Poseidon, who wasn't supposed to be in Zeus' sky domain. Why did the gods have to be so territorial? I didn't even know I wasn't supposed to be in the sky! Then my spirits dropped even more. I was the one who asked mom to go by plane. It had been my fault that she died. And that hurt me more than ever.

"Jean?"

I looked up to see Percy studying me.

"I know you're mad at Zeus," Percy said tentatively. I just grunted in return, and I hung my head, letting my black hair cover my face. "But-"

"But what?" I shot at him angrily. "Mom died because I didn't know we weren't supposed to be there! Where's the justice in that? I thought gods existed were supposed to be—"

I jumped in midsentence; Percy and Tyson both clapped their hands to my mouth at the same time. Their combined force was strong such that I fell off the bench. To others, it might look that they were trying to ambush me. When I righted myself, Percy told me, ""You do NOT want to insult the gods. If you've met one—"

"I have," I interrupted him, rolling my green-grey eyes. "I've seen Hestia, Persephone and Hades."

"You've met Hades?" Percy cried out in surprise. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Oh yeah," Percy let out, probably remembering that I was saved by Nico before I was brought to New York.

Then the man sitting beside Chiron stood up. "I think it's time for you lot to trot off and go sing your camp songs."

Chiron nudged him.

"Oh, and we have a new camper, Zoe Gin Yummytoe."

Chiron nudged him again.

"Fine, Sui Jean Yamato. Blah blah blah and congrats for being claimed so fast and all that. Go on then, off to the camp fire!"

"Who's that guy?" I asked Percy and Tyson amidst cheers from the other campers.

"Dionysus. Wine god," Percy informed me, with a hint of annoyance. Hmm... he probably had a not so good record with that god.

"Does he really like to mess up our names?" I asked again through gritted teeth. Percy grimaced and I noticed how the dining pavilion was nearly empty. Tyson led the way to what looked like the campfire area. Percy explained how every night the campers had a sing-along before going to bed. I remained quiet for the rest of the night, even during the sing-a-long, even if the Apollo kids were really good singers. I just didn't feel like singing even if my two new brothers were singing at the top of their lungs. When I looked around, I noticed that aside from me, only Nico didn't join in the singing. In fact, he seemed content to just be here with fellow demigods.

I caught his eye. Nico gave me a small grin and looked away. Then I realized that he was my first half-blood friend (unless you count grandma), and if you wanted to be technical, my cousin. I hadn't seen him at any of the camp's activities, and it looked like he just does his own thing. I guess that's what you get for being the only known child of Hades. But then I wondered about his past with Percy. Something must have happened before that made them on good terms. Apparently, even if the campers think Nico's a decent fighter, the kids still give him space. A lot of space. Maybe it's a Hades kid thing. Nico is... pretty scary for a twelve-year-old.

This day proved to be longer than I expected it to be. I'd tried a lot of activities, I was claimed, and I got angry at Zeus. Some day I'm having.

On our way back to the cabins, Tyson challenged us to a race to the cabins and took off. But when we followed, something black and furry suddenly slammed into Percy and me. Then I felt really really wet, and really really icky because a rough fleshy thing was scraping my face. I glanced about me in alarm, and realized that the black furry something was a dog. A really big dog, about the size of a dump truck. And it was using its tongue was licking Percy and me.

"Nice to see you too, Mrs. O'Leary!" Percy told the dog. I thought he was going bonkers, but then I realized that the dog (or more specifically, hellhound) was called Mrs. O'Leary, who stopped licking us. She sat up straight on the ground, her tail wagging. A salivated Percy smiled at me.

"This is the camp's resident hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary," Percy said, patting the hellhound on its big nose. To my surprise, the hellhound lay on its belly and closed its eyes, as if enjoying the attention. Then I cautiously approached it. Mrs. O'Leary sniffed at me interestedly.

"I thought hellhounds don't make good pets," I remarked, my eyes still wide. Mrs. O'Leary growled at me and I shut up. No, I didn't want to be a doggie snack.

"She's special; the world's only tame hellhound," Percy informed me, staring ruefully at his wet clothing and then back to the hellhound. "Sorry girl, I'll play with you tomorrow."

The hellhound's ears drooped. She gave us one last sniff and wandered off into the darkness probably to find some doggie snack which thankfully wasn't me. Percy and I ran towards the cabins but I trudged to the Hermes cabin, Percy held my arm.

"Where're you going?" he asked me with meaningful green eyes. I mentally slapped myself for not remembering that I had access to a new cabin now. I waved Percy off to get my stuff from the Hermes cabin, where I met Mikai at the threshold on my way out.

"You got claimed so fast," she told me glumly, hugging her sleeping bag. I couldn't ignore the pout on her lips nor the sadness in her eyes. "Maybe my mom doesn't want me. I'm too weak."

"No," I told her firmly. "You'll train at camp, and you'll grow stronger. You'll be claimed too. I'm sure of it."

"You think so?" she looked up, her eyes with more spark than earlier. I nodded fervently. I waved good bye and left her at the Hermes cabin. I could feel her brown eyes on my back as I made my way to the Poseidon cabin.

Percy, Tyson and I had a little chat before we slept. After explaining my feat with Arianne, and aside from finding out the pros and cons of being a kid of Poseidon, I found that Tyson was great with tinkering with things.

"I will help you make best sword!" Tyson declared when he found out about the loss of my arnis.

"Yeah, he's really good," Percy agreed, telling me something about a shield that according to him, was made by Tyson.

"Your sword was forged by Tyson?" I asked him, but Percy shook his head. He took out a pen from his pocket and he held it up in front of him like a sword. I thought he was going to use it like a summoning artefact like those in some tv shows.

"This is Riptide," Percy informed me. Then he uncapped the pen. My mouth fell open when I saw a three-foot long bronze sword in Percy's hands. I've heard of pens being swords of writers in a metaphorical sense, but for Percy's case, the pen IS the sword. Percy let out a laugh when he stared at my expression. What... don't blame me to be surprised. You'd be surprised too if your ballpen suddenly turned into a full-fledged sword.

"Wow!"

"It was made a really long time ago; long story. But he best part of this is that I can't lose it," Percy explained, "It'll always reappear in my pocket, unless I intentionally leave it somewhere."

"Nifty," I commented with a grin. If I closed my eyes, I could imagine Percy duking it out with countless monsters and what-not with that sword. "But do you really think a sword would be good for me? I mean, I'm an arnis-user and all."

"Percy will teach you," Tyson said, "He's good."

Percy grinned at his little brother and checked the time. Surprisingly, it was ten minutes past eleven, so cabin head counsellor Percy declared it a night and switched off the lights.

...

I thought I couldn't sleep properly that night. What had happened to my life still filled my mind. I lost mom, I learn I'm a half-blood, I run out on my grandma, I get to camp, and I learned that my dad is Poseidon. Inasmuch of my awe that I'm a kid of the big three, I couldn't help but feel a pang of hatred at my father. Funny how I was excited to know who my parent is, and then next moment I feel this... hurt towards him. I mean, if he had been with mom (I know it's childish of me, since the gods had their own responsibilities too) or at least, told her what things not to do, and then maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe, she would have been with me and grandma still.

I missed mother. I missed grandma. They were good people, and both were wise. I wondered what they would do if they were in this situation. They would have worked hard. Yeah. They wouldn't be happy if they knew I was mopping around. And besides, grandma wanted me to train. She wanted me not to look at the past and move forward to what I needed to do. Mom would tell me to train as hard as I can, so as not to make the mistakes of the past.

My lips curled into a small smile when I remembered my first lessons with mom and grandma. We were on the beach, and grandma was teaching me hand-to-hand combat. I kept trying to beat her, but grandma was too good. In one moment of frustration, I accidentally doused her with sea water. I didn't know who my dad was then. Mom laughed and hugged me, while grandma just grimaced and tackled both of us, and we all ended up in the sea. Happy days.

I missed them both. Terribly. I was wrong to judge grandma; she did care for mom and for me. She proved that by bringing my arnis to me, and helping fight the telekhines.

Tonight, I was wrong though. And as the tears dampened my pillow, I pulled my blanket over my head and slowly lulled myself to sleep.

...

Tyson helped me out with my new sword first thing the next morning. He told me it was possible to make a katana, the traditional Japanese sword used by samurai. He taught me how to forge one: melting the metals needed to make celestial bronze, hammering it to a desired form and cooling it in ice cold water.

"Thanks Tyson! It's beautiful!" I exclaimed as I caressed my new katana. It was made of celestial bronze, just like other metal weapons used by half-bloods. Tyson's cheeks were tinted red.

"Made for you!" Tyson declared triumphantly. "It had your blood so only you'd be able to use it!"

"_Sugoi_! That's great!" I cried out and hugged my brother again. "I love it!"

"I am glad!" Tyson cried happily. "Try it out!"

When we arrived at the arena, we met Ponytail guy again. Chiron the centaur stood in front of me. I tried not to laugh when I saw his #1 centaur shirt because he had a decent bow-and-arrow set slung at his shoulder. Chiron raised his eyebrows at Tyson.

"Come to help your sister?" he asked Tyson, who nodded. "I thought Poseidon needed help rebuilding his palace."

Tyson suddenly developed an interest at the grass and muttered, "Chiron is right, I have to go back to daddy."

"You can stay here a bit longer, can't you?" I pleaded. He seemed really tempted, but he shook his head roughly.

"I have permission only to help you make a sword," Tyson said. He tried to smile but it came out as a grimace.

Before I could stop him, he ran off to the shore. I gripped my new katana tightly. It felt strange in my fingers, but not the cold alien feeling. It felt warm and friendly. And it was thanks to Tyson that I have it with me right now. I made a promise to visit him sometime, if my dad let me. I stifled a shiver at the thought of Poseidon being my dad. Chiron's voice knocked me back to Earth.

"Jean," he said. "I need you at the Big House."

I followed him there, only to see a familiar-looking gray-haired gray-eyed elderly woman sitting on one of the chairs at the table.

"Grandma?"

I ran out to hug her, and she hugged me back. Chiron cleared his throat. "Your grandmother came to ask you if you would like to stay here for the whole year round."

I told them about Hestia's message.

"I think that settles things," Chiron said in a final tone. Then he turned to my grandma. "Izumi, you're still welcome here to teach."

"I'll have to think about that," grandma told him with a small smile. Grandma was offered a teaching post? By Chiron?

Before I could dwell on it, Chiron acknowledged our decisions and let us go. I said good-bye to Percy, who would be picked up by Sally later that day. But I couldn't find Mikai and Nico. So I was forced to cross the threshold of camp without saying good bye. I knew we'd meet again soon.

I was sad to leave the camp, the place where I felt really at home. Where I didn't have to act normal to be accepted. There, being different, being the child of a god or goddess and having enhanced battle awareness and special abilities, made you normal. But I had to go. I vowed, staring at the great pine tree and the dragon on the hill top, that I would return.

"_No one else seemed to notice her, but I realized maybe she preferred it that way."_

~Percy Jackson, PJO: The Last Olympian

**A/N: Um... Please do tell me if anyone's becoming a Mary Sue/Gary Stu... and please tell me how to de-Suify/de-Stuify. Or if anyone's OOC, and how I can manage it... Please and thanks!**

**[1] I am referring to Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny, two animes I have watched but do not own. She's Japanese... she's supposed to be familiar with anime to a degree.**


	5. Ch 4 Hard Work

**Poseidon's Daughter: Yamato Sui Jean**

**A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi**

**Disclaimer: haganeochibi does not own PJO.**

**A.N.: This is a filler chapter before the actual adventure starts.**

**Chapter 4: Hard Work**

The bus ride on the way back to my grandma's lodgings was less eventful compared to the one going to camp. No monsters, for a change. Grandma had no problem getting us the best front seats, and I didn't complain. The views steadily grew more urban as the bus rolled past the green fields. I sure would miss camp, even if I'd stayed only a day.

"Grandma?" I asked her. She glanced at me with narrowed eyes and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you going to accept the teaching post?" I asked. Grandma pursed her thin lips and studied the fiber glass window. It took her a few minutes to answer, and when she just gave me a vague maybe. I thought it was the best answer I was going to get so I dropped the subject and enjoyed the view.

"Grandma?" I asked again after a few minutes. I shook her shoulder lightly to gain her attention.

"What?" she responded sleepily, as she was about to take a nap.

"I think accepting the post would help you move on," I said slowly, regarding her carefully. "You've always told me that work is the best distraction."

Her nostrils flared, but she didn't give me a verbal reply. I looked away from her furious grey eyes. She sure could pull off that scary look. I wondered how she could fare with Nico's death glare when I quietly muttered my apology in Japanese. Then grandma just dozed off. I left her to sleep peacefully after that, and that left me some time to think.

It was highly possible that grandma was still in the process of getting over mom's passing and that left her in a labyrinth of her own. I know we both felt the same hurt at our loss. I know it would be harder for her since I'm still dependent on her and she's to take care of me despite her loss. But I know how strong she is and I know she'll pull through. And I am determined to help her in whatever way I can, even if it means I'd have to work myself crazy trying to master what she teaches me so she'd be pleased. It won't be easy.

Back at the apartment, I found that my grandmother had set up a mini dojo, complete with a dummy and a few weapons. When I asked, she said that she dreamed of doing it.

"Dreams can be strange mediums," she said, with twinkling gray eyes.

Training started early the next day. I woke up at 5 AM; my grandma turning up the volume on her speaker to the maximum should effectively do that. Can you believe she listens to Arashi? Once I had opened my eyed, my grandma forced me in the bathroom to have HOT shower.

I was considerably more awake and wide-eyed when grandma explained that my training included strength building, muscle toning and self-defense. It was like physical education at school, but levelled up because I actually get to use real weapons and spar seriously, meaning the fights won't be as concerted as in most schools. Plus, you never get to have a senior citizen for a sensei (teacher) everyday, let alone a daughter of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and battle.

Grandmother was agitated when she learned how I lost my arnis. I winced, expecting to be lashed upon by spiky words and a few slaps, but she did nothing of the sort. Instead, she looked at me coldly and said, "Weapons can never be truly replaced. They are part of you, and even if you forge a new one, it would never be the same."

Grandma suddenly brought up her right hand. I automatically flinched, expecting it to collide with my face, but I looked up to see that she just tucked a stray hair strand behind her ear.

"I am disappointed," she said. Her simple sentence hurt but not as much as Zeus killing mom. Last night, I relayed my camp adventures to grandma and I told her what Percy said about how and why mom died. Grandma just grimaced. I thought heard the ghost of a sob, but the next moment, she had composed herself and asked me to go to bed. Right now, it looked like she shed quite a few tears last night, since grandma's eyes were a bit reddish.

"Now," she said in warmer tone. She put on a wide grin and I gulped an exceptionally large amount of saliva. "We start training."

The day seemed longer than I expected. She had me do five hundred push ups and a hundred laps around the dojo room. She had me spar with her. And it was just a few minutes past eight in the morning of Sunday. Then she worked with my Greek and other academics. In the afternoon, grandma decided to let me use my new katana. She taught me a few moves, but this time, I got it right away. The katana was feeling pretty good in my hand, even if I got a few blisters.

"Now, repeat the movement without the sword fifty times, then with a sword a hundred times," grandma instructed. The dummies were nothing but piles of straw three hours later. I was sure grandma would make me repair those. Meanwhile, I was drenched in sweat.

"You've got a lot to do after you master your sword!" grandma told me as I sheathed my katana. I gave her a tired inquiring look.

"Oh, you did not think Chiron would tell me about the body-controlling ability you had," grandma said with a creepy look in her gray eyes. "So we're going to figure that out."

Sounds like a plan worthy of Athena. I sighed. Add grandma's training to the school I was supposed to attend (expect grandma to arrange my school stuff even if I'm a half-blood) this year, and I therefore conclude: this was going to be a long training period.

...

School wasn't so bad, even if I was two weeks late. It seemed that grandma had somehow produced the necessary papers for me to lead a normal life here, though I'm having doubts about the 'normal' description. I was never the best in class and something always seemed to happen during the school year so I could never stay at one school for long. In Japan, grandma homeschooled me during the holidays, and she kept me working at my toes! It's hard being the granddaughter of Athena's kid, but I understood that grandma just wanted me to be the best I could be.

"Kakumei no tameni, iie o iimasen!" She always told me. It meant something like, never say never.

A few stray monsters usually met me after school, but I was better armed now. I brought my katana with me wherever I go, and to humans, it looked like a fancy walking stick I pretended to be a family heirloom. They bought it, but like in Japan, my new teachers and classmates still though I was a weird loner.

I was the only Asian in my class, and my classmates always laughed at me whenever I spoke English in a funny accent. I still couldn't read, no matter how much they made me to. I tried, but I guess my innate Ancient-Greek-processor got in the way. I knew I could read Greek, but I didn't feel the need to tell them.

I was reasonably good in the sciences, which perked my interest more than literature. Possibly my forte would be biology, my teacher said, giving me a smile. We had this field trip to the nearest marine area, and a lot of the fishes gathered around me when I touched the glass.

_Child of Poseidon!_

I was startled to hear the voices in my head. I looked around, but nobody was talking like that. My eyes settled on the school of fish in front of me and remembered what Percy said something about being able to talk to sea creatures.

"You're talking to me?" I wondered out loud. My classmates looked at me like I was suddenly crowned 'Queen Loony.' I neglected to tell them that the fish actually talked to me; they'd probably think I was off my rocker more than they originally thought. Plus, it would raise more awkward questions. Luckily, the fish trainers arrived in their scuba suits and aqua lungs so the fish swam off. But the awkward stares didn't.

Grandma made sure I was doing my best both at school and in her training. I was improving bit by bit, and grandma seemed happy enough. There were times that I couldn't get her lessons properly, and she didn't hesitate to reprimand me by having me do additional laps or a hundred repetitions of the current maneuvers I was learning, or maybe cutting me off the hand-picked Japanese animations I loved. Hey, I'm Japanese, and I support anime too, even if I can't read the characters.

It was like being held in a leash and I couldn't breathe properly.

But then when you think about it, I think grandma and I are moving past the 'excessive grief' stage of mourning for mom. Grandma cried less often now, as proved by the less puffy eyes I saw every morning. And I noticed that she even smiled when I managed to immobilize her arm properly. That time I smiled too, despite the exhaustion I felt when I released her arm. It had been a hard a hard three months for me, but I guess it'll all be worth it in the end.

I was so glad when December holidays came around, and that meant I won't have school until after the New Year. And no school means less work and less stress. It should be good. In Japan, my mom and I never celebrated Christmas like the Westerners, but now I found that my grandma followed her fellow American residents. It turns out she had far better plans for Christmas than the usual stay at home thing. My Christmas holidays turned out to be more eventful than I expected.

In the first official holiday, grandma woke me up especially early around 4AM. I was flustered, but when she told me I'd be spending the holidays at Camp Half-blood, my body immediately eliminated all want of sleep. She sent me there first and then told me to tell the directors that she'll follow soon enough.

And so I did what I was told. I was practically bouncing up and down my seat in the bus which I took on the way there. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, which was lucky for a half-blood. The driver did give me a strange look when he dropped me off Half-blood hill. I replied with a curt nod and hopped off the bus.

Then when I entered the threshold past Peleus the dragon guardian, something black, huge and furry collided painfully with me and then I was wet unwillingly for the second time in my life. Mrs. O'Leary, Percy's pet hellhound, had been the first to welcome me in camp.

"Hey!" a voice shouted somewhere not far off, "She'll have your head if you—"

The speaker stopped when he saw that the hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary, whose paws were nearly crushing my rib cage, was practically giving me a doggie bath of her own. Percy Jackson grinned and marvelled at my 'wet-than-warm' welcome. Like me, he'd probably decided to spend the holidays here.

"Heel, Mrs. O'Leary!" he ordered the hellhound, and she came to sit beside her owner. Percy grinned at me and greeted, "Hey Jean!"

"Hi Percy," I replied with a half-hearted wave and a small smile. Then I took in the new look of camp. It was snowing lightly and naturally, frost covered most of the activity areas, including the chariot track and the fields. The camp was different. I turned to Percy, who smiled.

"Camp looks strange during winter, doesn't it?" he echoed my thoughts. I smiled too then, out of want to lessen the awkwardness with my half-brother, asked him how school went for him. He seemed happy enough; he doesn't have a fire-breathing grandma who breathes smoke down his nape every single day. Okay, I was exaggerating, but yeah, he does have it quite easy. He told me about Annabeth, his significant other whom I had yet to meet, about his mom getting along happily with his new stepdad.

Percy let Mrs. O'Leary have fun by herself in the forest, and we walked to the cabins. When we got there, I noticed the decorations: bright balls of fire adorned the Big House, the woods, and the cabins. Even the dreary Hades cabin had a few fire balls of its own. Percy ran off to our cabin, while I stayed outside to admire the decorations. The camp looked... really merry.

I was walking backward distractedly because I was admiring the decorations, and that's when I bumped a girl with golden curly hair. Bump understates things, though. I know it was my fault; I wasn't looking, and I collided with another person unintentionally. What made it worse was that I was drenched in hellhound saliva and that she nearly dropped her small scale model of what looked like Olympus. Thanks to her reflexes, the girl caught her model before it could break itself by hitting the ground. I studied her features carefully, and my spirits dropped when I realized that this girl was Annabeth Chase.

Annabeth cringed as she felt the viscous hellhound saliva creep to her clothes at contact.

"Watch where you're going! Use your eyes, will you?" she yelled at me, and began de-salivating her shirt with a towel. Then she grabbed her scale model and thrust it at my face. "This is my scale model of Olympus and you're lucky I didn't break it!"

"I didn't mean to wreck it! I'm sorry!" I apologized hurriedly, holding up my hands and noticing the sheathed knife at her side.

"You'd better be!" she shot back and glared at me, looking me right in the eye. Then she noticed my grey-green eyes. Realization struck her then. Unsurprisingly, she looked flustered and said, "You're Percy's little sister."

I gave her a small grin. "Took you long enough."

...

Remember what I said about grandma home schooling me during the holidays? She never forgot that, even now. She sent me a pile of academic work on top of my holiday school work. Typical. After I spent most of the day training with my fellow half-bloods, I decided to end my day early to get some of my school work done by finishing a pedigree for special credit in science. Surely you'd expect that from Athena's granddaughter!

But thing is, I had a hard time in doing the pedigree. It was easy to trace my human relatives in my mother side, but what about my dad's? What would my teacher say when she sees names like Poseidon, Hades and Zeus? And then I had other half-brothers and sisters by Poseidon... like Percy. And if I wanted to be technical, I could add those Cyclops. And then my grandma's lineage would require me to write Annabeth, Daedalus...

"I'll never finish this!" I sighed and lay down on my bed. I put the draft aside and thought about just eliminating my father side from the pedigree altogether. My thoughts ran wild and settled on mom. I missed her. I wish I could share what I have right now with her: grandma, my friends and all that. She would have loved Camp Half-blood. I know she would not have been able to enter, but still.

I raised my hand and traced my mother's name in the air using Ancient Greek. It was simple enough; I just had to release enough energy to condense enough water vapour in the air.

"Hi," a voice said. It sounded surprised, but unnerved at the same time. The water splashed all around me, but I didn't mind. I sat up and saw Annabeth standing at the threshold of the cabin.

"Hello?"

She glanced at me seriously. "We need to talk. Will you walk with me?"

On other situations, I would have refused, but seeing as I was going nowhere with my pedigree, I stood up and let her lead me outside.

"About earlier," Annabeth began. Her stormy gray eyes burned into my own. I guess she was being sincere about this, but I had a sneaky feeling that she was doing this for Percy. Not that making up is a bad thing though; I don't want any grudges with other half-bloods and definitely not with someone who effectively uses a 12-inch and well-sharpened celestial bronze knife.

"I'm sorry," I said before she could continue, and she grinned. I responded with an impish grin and said, "Maybe I would have reacted in the same way. Maybe worse."

"It's not like my model got broken," Annabeth added. I gave her a reluctant smile. Annabeth's face lightened up considerably and the tension lessened. "So, are you still game in capture the flag?"

I was a bit taken aback by the change in subject but I nodded. Then Annabeth hesitated. I stared at her face, which was watching a few satyrs play chase with dryads. "I've seen you train. You're good."

"Thanks," I replied to her compliment. I gave her a quizzical glance. Athena's children never say anything without a decent purpose. They always have plans, as grandma often says. "Not as good as Percy though."

Annabeth smiled. "He's had four years of experience behind him."

I nodded once, not really sure what to say. My hand moved to my katana on impulse and I noticed that it's becoming a habit.

"I saw you fight with your sword," she continued, eyeing my sheathed katana critically. "You like light weapons like your thinner sword."

'Katana,' I corrected mentally.

"Have you ever used a knife?" Annabeth asked. I knew Annabeth is well-versed with a knife. I like knives as weapons too because it gives you agility and speed unlike broad swords. But I had this bad experience with a knife that's why I asked Tyson for a katana, which hung at my side and ready for use anytime.

"No," I confessed with gritted teeth. My favourite weapons would be the arnis and my katana. Grandma wouldn't allow me to use her kunai, so I can't say anything about knives.

"I'll teach you a few tricks," Annabeth told me. "We'll start tomorrow morning."

I nodded as casually as I could. I knew she was up to something. Annabeth worked with me for most of the next day after asking Percy's permission. Annabeth was picky about the angles of my arms, or the way I gripped the knife. She was almost as harsh as grandma, only she didn't have the same scary aura. Or maybe she was going light on me.

"Listen," she told me after our session. "You'll officially be on the third line of defense for the flag. Don't stay out of position no matter what."

...

Dinner was unusually exciting that night. After it, Chiron gathered everyone at the Pavilion. When he gave us the guidelines and told us to arm ourselves, I followed Percy's lead and wore Greek armor, which was really heavy. I wondered how I could run fast in it and thought it was a bit silly to fight with green decorative horsehair plumes on top of the helmet. But at least it marked that the Poseidon cabin was leading one team, which included Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and Hecate. The other team was led by Ares, and it included everybody else, including Hades.

That's how I ran into my good friend Nico during the capture the flag activity. Annabeth's plan made sense to me now. With Percy and Annabeth protecting the flag, the others battling at the borderline, I was stuck here in the Thanks to dear Annabeth, I was facing off against the hell boy/

During the past months, grandma realized something about Nico. She said that he was possibly that kid that ran into us a year ago, when I still lived in Japan. I found it strange that Nico was almost the same as I met him, not at the west coast, but in China.

We were Japanese, but a few years back, grandma had decided to take a holiday trip in China. One afternoon, we were running home from a storm. Then a young boy just appeared out of a dark corner, slammed into the wall and collapsed. The next thing I knew, grandma and I were nursing him in MY room and on MY futon. That meant I had to sleep on the floor for the night and I had a patient to attend to. It took him five days to fully recover, and when he did, he thanked us and complimented the Chinese decorations, then disappeared into the shadows. But I don't think he remembers the people too much.

"I won't go easy on you," he warned me, wild fire in his eyes. He raised his sword at the ready and attacked. I swung my own, and the blades emitted green and black sparks when they met.

Darn it, Nico was good. He had good reflexes, precise offences and strong defence, which were probably the result of training with the dead. All I could do was keep up and neutralize the forces.

_The main principle of tai chi chuan is to neutralize the forces before countering with your own attack._ Grandma taught me this during my first training days. Neutralize. Counter. Neutralize. Counter. My arms grew tired and I knew I had to yield soon.

I thought I heard a rustling sound from one of the bushes around us, and I lost focus. With one swift move, my sword clattered out of my hand. The rustling sound was made by Nico's newly-summoned undead helpers, who quickly grabbed and held me steady. Unfortunately I could still see him, and that was more than I needed.

"See ya later!" he called and was about to walk away when his legs stiffened and he toppled over face first to the ground. Good. 'Serves you right for trapping me in with a stinky (un)dead minion,' I thought.

I commanded the water again. This time, I hoisted him up in the air upside down. It was not as tiring as it used to be but I still became drowsy after releasing the victim.

"HEY! What's going on?" he demanded, his pale face slowly turning red due to the blood rush.

"I think you know," I told him and treated him to my own mean stares, but I wasn't any better at it as Percy was at archery. Only then did he remember that day when I controlled Ariane's arm and realize that I was controlling his limbs.

"Let me down!" he yelled angrily, his face red. I smiled innocently in my captor's less-than-loving arms.

"Fair trade, cuz. Fair trade."

...

I heard the conch horn (wait, how did I know that?) and knew that the game was over. War cries could be heard throughout the forest. I let Nico free, and vice-versa. Both of us crumpled to the ground. I lay there for a few moments, waiting for my heart rate to go down while cousin dearest checked his motor functions. And Nico just gave me one of his creepy stares before banishing his minion and disappearing in the shadows.

The yells were closer now, and a few more seconds later, the other campers (both green and red) I saw Annabeth with a few back up campers carrying the 10-ft-long red banner of Ares. I blinked, and the red banner became silvery gray, with a painting of an owl above an olive tree: the symbol of Athena.

"Nice work, Jean," Percy commented amidst the celebrations. I smiled weakly. He held out a friendly hand to help me up which I took gratefully. It took all my strength to get up, retrieve my katana and walk back to the cabin. Right now, all I wanted was to sleep and I certainly didn't want to participate in a rather heated discussion of Percy, Annabeth and Nico. As for me, I trudged to my bunk and fell instantly asleep.

…

*Third person

"Percy, you know who she reminds me of?" Annabeth asked, trying to tame her blonde curls into an obedient ponytail. Her gray eyes studied the sweaty but agile form of Jean in the middle of the arena, where she battled a wooden figure. Jean was practicing her unique combination of Asian fighting skills with her katana. Annabeth noticed how its lightness (compared to Western broad swords at least) granted its better slicing. Percy stood beside Annabeth with a raised eyebrow.

"Nico."

"I see what you mean," Percy agreed. "She's really good."

"She's already familiar with hydrokinetics and the Asian fighting style in a few months," Annabeth explained. She wasn't able to hide the awe in her voice. "I wonder who her teacher is. Really, I'm impressed at how she's able to control a body by manipulating the water inside."

"Nico nearly banished me to the Underworld after last night," Percy recalled with a thoughtful expression on his face. "He was like, 'keep that... that sister of yours in the sea, will you?'"

"He told me that it would have been amazing, if he WEREN"T the TARGET," Annabeth said with a slight shudder. Percy laughed.

"Come on," Percy beckoned. He ran to his sister, where he was met with a barrage of sharp ice knives and dead grass. Several dryads yelled in indignation.

"Hey!"

Jean yelped and with an apology, she let the knives splash in the form of water to the ground, restoring the grass's health with the help of the fleece.

"Don't sneak up like that, Percy!" she complained as she sheathed her katana. Annabeth reached the siblings by this time.

"Hi Jean!" Annabeth greeted. Jean's smile fell a bit. "We were just observing your fighting style, and wondering who your teacher is."

Jean thought hard. "I think you'll meet her soon enough."

It was hard to ignore the spark in Annabeth's eyes.

…

*First person

The first thing I did after training that day was to run all out towards Zeus' fist and sit crossed–legged on one of the rocks.

I breathed deeply. It felt so good to be in shape. It's like I could do a lot of things from fighting bad guys to puling a prank on a not-so-sharp kid. I felt strong; stronger than I had ever been in my entire life. And I had managed to help my allies win the capture the flag by immobilising the hindrance that was in the form of hell boy Nico.

"I knew you'd be here."

I turned sharply to the source of the voice. It was, curse him for interrupting my session, Nico di Angelo. He was standing in the shadows of the trees. Oh, of course, I can't believe I forgot he had dark (though not necessarily evil) abilities.

"Hello, hell boy," I said airily, standing up to see him better. His eye twitched at his new nickname. "I thought you didn't talk to me."

"Well, I do now," he said firmly. His serious black eyes bore into mine. "Who are you, really? Last time I met you, you were that helpless defenceless kid."

My eye twitched at the description. I didn't like being called helpless, but it was true back then. Right now, I felt stronger. I held back my attempt to immobilise him again.

"Now you've done an overhaul," he commented. "What happened?"

I stared him right at the eye. "You're not the only one who could be trained, hell boy. I have my resources, you have yours."

Then, something big and black and hairy crashed into me. The next thing I knew, I was drenched in hellhound saliva. Ewww….

To my eternal surprise, Nico burst into laughter.

I scowled, and vaporized the water content of the saliva, though the scent still hung on me. I had nothing against hellhounds, but I just don't like being licked. But Mrs. O'Leary just had to invade that bit of personal space. Sigh. She let me scratch her huge head while Nico decided to leave his shadow sanctuary. I seized the chance to make his fist whack his face.

"OW!"

I grinned and sat on the ground. "That's for laughing at me."

Nico frowned, rubbing the spot he unwillingly hit. "No fair."

I threw my head back in a laugh. "It's not my fault I researched and found out about the amount of water I can control in a living body."

"Whoa, and I thought the Athena kids were nerdy like that," Nico mused as he cautiously sat beside me, though he still kept a safe one foot distance. It was good that he dropped the subject of me. He scratched Mrs. O'Leary on the head too. I gave him a small smile.

"I guess I do owe you an apology," I began. "Hanging you upside down in midair for half an hour was not humane."

"Accepted," Nico said. "Besides, I'll have plenty of time to settle revenge."

I nodded slowly, trying not to notice his freaky black eyes. I just knew what had happened before via stories from Percy. Then I noticed a spark of intuition in Nico's eyes. Percy's pet cocked her head to the side.

"Is your grandmother a demigod?" Nico asked. I nodded again, not sure what he was getting at. "Your grandma had grey eyes. She's a daughter of Athena. She's been training you all this time?"

"Congratulations, you figured it out before Annabeth did," I said, and clapped my hands. Well, I was stunned that he figured it out. But then again, he did see grandma once.

He cleared his throat. "Yeah. That explains all the nerdy stuff."

I swear he accidentally hit Juniper's tree on the way to the dining pavilion.

...

A group of blonde campers were huddled in the big house the next morning. Chiron was talking to someone with white hair, wrinkled skin, and gray eyes. Someone elderly. OH NO.

I ran to Dionysius and Chiron only to see my grandmother, Izumi Yamato, standing beside the centaur. When she saw me, she smiled and said, "I just accepted his offer. I am going to join the instructors at this camp."

Standing there, rooted to the spot amidst Athena campers and the camp directors, I didn't know if I was going to be happy or not.

_"That was probably smart [not moving Annabeth's stuff]. Annabeth had a bronze knife that she reserved just for monsters and people who messed with her stuff."_

_~Percy Jackson, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian_


	6. Ch 5 The Hunters of Artemis

**Of Titanic Proportions**

A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi

**Author's Note:** You ask why this took so long? Let's just say I'm not the best in poetry and that school is such a bonz eateverything (from Monster Allergy). But I make up for the length somehow. And yes, this story is now known as "Of Titanic Proportions."

**Disclaimer:** I do not own PJO.

_"And now you're thinking about following them on the quest... Because if it was my sister, I'd probably be thinking the same thing."_

~Percy Jackson, PJO: The Titan's Curse

**Chapter 5: The Hunters of Artemis**

Once more I found myself locked in combat with Annabeth Chase.

See, my euphoria in winning the Capture the Flag activity was quickly wiped out by grandma. She told me I lacked affinity with my sword because I got easily beaten. Easily! She should try to take on hell boy for once, or maybe Percy. We'll see about that...

Anyway, grandma was immediately assigned to Cabin Six and was warmly welcomed by the other campers, most particularly the Athena kids. She relieved Chiron of some weapon-wielding classes and taught hand-to-hand combat.

In class, I asked her what it felt like to teach half-bloods, grandma told me, "It rejuvenates me more effectively than any beauty product." [2]

"Not that I've tried any," she added hastily when I gave her a wide-eyed look and for sparring, she dragged me off to Annabeth before Percy could begin to approach the gray-eyed blonde.

Annabeth took a brief second to study my stance then lost no moment to attack. I blocked or dodged just as fast. And I don't want to elaborate on how grandma simply doted on her being a really good fighter and how she cleverly she uses her knife. Her crisp voice distracted me and had me on edge. I lost my focus; Annabeth took the chance to grab and twist my sword arm. She quickly knocked my katana aside and had her knife at my throat. It was over in that one brief moment of distraction.

I heard a clapping sound behind me, and when Annabeth loosened her grip, I saw grandma smiling at her. Needless to say, I was irritated. Hey, she had way more experience than I had! Of course she had to win.

"Try to note the efficiency of her moves," grandma told me. "She wastes no energy and her precision is unparalleled."

Annabeth blushed at the compliment, while I stared darkly at the ground.

"Again," grandma said. I pursed my lips and took a stance. Now I'm going to be more serious. I thrust my sword, and Annabeth swatted it aside. But her whole back was suspiciously unguarded. I took this chance to turn grab her hair and have my katana blade at her throat.

Satisfied, grandma walked away. I lowered my katana and Annabeth, her knife.

"You left your back unguarded," I remarked as we readied ourselves. Annabeth blew a strand of blonde hair off her face.

"So I did," Annabeth said, and parried my first attack easily. Our blades met and she pushed hard. Annabeth stepped back and readjusted her grip on her bronze knife. Knowing Athena's kids, I figured Annabeth was on to something. She glanced at grandma, who was determinedly correcting the stance of Annabeth's siblings, then at me. "Don't you think it's strange that you're a child of Poseidon when your grandmother is a daughter of Athena?"

The change in topic threw me off guard, but then I said, "You're upset that you're my grandma's sister and my grand-aunt."

I mentally sniggered when Annabeth flinched. The snigger vanished as she viciously slashed her knife horizontally. I ducked and swept my leg in a circle, but she had leapt backward to avoid being sent on her behind.

"No!" Annabeth said impatiently as if she were talking to a hard-headed kid. I think she might be. "The gods don't have DNA, Jean, so we're not really related; except for your siblings. I mean, haven't you considered your ancestry to be... complicated? Poseidon doesn't get along well with my mother, nor with her descendants."

Oh. Right.

Annabeth had a point, and a puzzling one at that. Poseidon had a daughter with one of Athena's descendants. I thought they Athena and Poseidon had this rivalry going on. Argh, it really makes you think, but I couldn't think of any good reason. Maybe dad was tricked somehow?

"I don't know," I confessed. I could almost hear Annabeth's brain cells whirring at top speed. "All I know was that mom had this affair with my dad when she was stabilizing her life back in Okinawa. Grandma wasn't with her at the time. So unless dad got hoodwinked..."

The earth rumbled and I hurriedly amended, "Okay, so father did NOT get hoodwinked."

The tremor threw Annabeth slightly off balance. Grinning, I grabbed and twisted her right wrist, making her drop her knife, then kneed her in the abdomen. I quickly pinned her to the ground with my katana at her nose.

It seemed Annabeth had dropped that particular mystery for now, because when she righted herself, she asked, "Your grandma's been teaching you?"

I nodded, my eyes studying Annabeth warily.

"She taught you how to control bodies?"

"Technically, yes," I answered, "It's the one thing I'm really good at."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows as she readied her knife.

"I'm not even good with knives, or even my katana," I added rather sheepishly, but quietly. My previously-bitten tongue still pricked a bit when I spoke and it didn't help that I was saying that to grandma's... sister.

"If you're worried about Hell Boy"-Annabeth grinned a bit at the pet name-"I just immobilized him for a few minutes, and-"

"Hung him upside down," Annabeth finished darkly, ignoring the amused grin on my face. She raised her knife again and I, my sword.

"Using your abilities is wrong now?" I asked her with raised eyebrows. Annabeth thrust her knife and turned. I swung my sword and gave Annabeth a one-inch trim. Lucky Annabeth evaded pretty fast. Both statement and attack came out harsher than I meant to but Annabeth set that aside.

"No!" Annabeth cried out, "Actually I wanted to ask _how_ you did it."

"Actually-"

I was cut off by Annabeth's knife slashing dangerously near my nose. I backed off, then Annabeth launched herself on me. I thought she wanted to tackle me, but gripped my wrist. I twisted. She let go, but I was thrown off-balance and Annabeth landed a kick on my abdomen. I was sent on my behind faster than you can say "buttocks."

"You were saying?" she prompted with her knife at my nose.

I know that the Ares kid incident three months ago would be enough to spread word that I'm a body-controlling freak, but sharing information about the one skill I'd so carefully studied with grandma to Annabeth would be like confiding your best moves to a rival. It just felt that way. The frown on my face proved that.

I considered flatly refusing to tell her, but I might as well answer; if I didn't explain, she'd pester me until I did, or worse, she'd ask grandma. When grandma found out that I didn't explain she might think I'm not capable of doing so or that I'm being anti-social by not sharing knowledge. And it was rather easy to give in when you're persuaded to talk at knife point.

"Grandma had this fancy term for water-controlling," I began, "Hydrokinetics. What I did is a special branch of that. I just commanded the water inside a body, assuming it had water."

"You control the blood?" Annabeth cried out, gripping the handle of her knife tightly. Several eyes turned towards us, making me more self-conscious. Annabeth seemed to realize this because she withdrew her knife and helped me up.

"Of course not," I said, "That Ares girl and Nico would be dead by now if I could. I can't control blood; that's freaky, and impossible. I just control the water in muscles, at least that's what grandma told me. And I can't do it often or as long as I'd like; it drains me."

I knew Annabeth would press me for details, but then grandma chose that moment to have demo and used Annabeth as a sparring partner. I admit I got a bit jealous because for most of my life _I_ was her partner, but that comes from the 'only child' thing. At least I think it is. Admitting it would earn only scorn from grandma, and I decided to shun it down in the deepest part of my brain with my ancestry issue, at least for the time being.

It did not help that I was chosen to be Annabeth's demo partner next, and that I had her bronze knife inches from my nose a few seconds later. Grandma wasn't pleased at all.

...

When I returned to the cabins after the sing-along, I tried looking for my friend Mikai. I hadn't seen her in my three days stay at camp, and I looked forward to seeing her and exchanging stories. She was my first friend here after all, and I felt a bit bad that I'd left her at camp. But when I asked Travis from the Hermes cabin (forgive me if I say I'm paranoid, but I tried not be within 'stealing range'), they told me she'd left with another half-blood a month ago.

Disappointed, I turned to my cabin. Then something caught my eye.

Cabin Eight, Artemis, was supposed to be empty because she's a virgin goddess, right? But why did I see a lot of girls there? I squinted harder to see a number of hunting falcons and wolves swarming the cabin. A few satyrs gazed at them in awe while the few campers that were there stared curiously. Those girls couldn't be Artemis' children, couldn't they? Artemis is supposed to be a virgin goddess. Then again, Athena is a virgin goddess too... Or could they be part of some sorority Artemis formed?

But before I could think further, Percy grabbed my arm and told me that a council had been called. It required two members per cabin, but seeing Percy and I were the only inhabitants of the Poseidon cabin, we were both required to attend. When we arrived at the Big House, Percy's eyes brightened at the sight of two girls entering.

"Who are they?" I asked Percy.

"The Hunters of Artemis," Percy told me shortly. He seemed to be searching for someone but couldn't find him or her. "A group of maidens who have sworn off men, and hunt at Artemis' side. They're like her handmaidens or something."

So Artemis had formed her own group. Being part of the Hunters of Artemis, it seemed proper that the two girls were wearing shirts, camouflage pants, and combat boots, that one had a falcon perched on her shoulder, and that they had their own weapons: a sword, a bow and a few arrows.

I heard Percy exclaim 'Thalia' and ran ahead of me. When I reached the council room with its dingy table tennis table (how redundant can this equipment get?), I saw him stand beside Nico of the Hades cabin. I stood beside my half-brother and my eyes swept the room with the same calculating expression of Annabeth, who was one of the representatives of the Athena cabin, and grandma, who stood beside the younger daughter of Athena. Chiron was talking to one of the hunters, and all the representatives from the cabins had already arrived.

Chiron pounded his hooves for attention. "Lady Artemis has asked the camp to accommodate the Hunters at camp while she is at Olympus for the annual Council of the Gods," Chiron said. I doubt that it was the gist of what he had to say; his face looked too serious for that.

"How did they get here?" I asked Percy quietly. "Hiking?"

"Dunno. Maybe Apollo must've brought them here in his sun car," Percy replied, his eyes still on Chiron.

"Isn't it supposed to be a sun chariot?" I asked again imagining Artemis' twin, Apollo bringing her hunters to camp in a chariot or a sun car. Would they all fit?

"He's a god; he can change it into any form he wants," Percy answered impatiently as the hunter beside Chiron cleared her throat.

"Lady Artemis sensed a dark force in the West Coast. We believe it to be the life force of a Titan. Whoever he or she is, the Titan is active, and my lady has already sent Thalia Grace to scout ahead. She has also asked us to let Camp Half-blood handle the situation," the hunter spoke with a slight tone of disappointment. Maybe Artemis thought the hunters were incapable for the mission. But they couldn't be; they aren't Artemis' hunters for nothing.

"My lady chooses to follow a prophecy," the hunter continued. I thought so. I glanced at Percy, and his face darkened. He had told me that the Titans were defeated by the Olympians with the help of demigods in the last battle of Olympus. Kronos, the leader, and his cronies aren't dead, that was believable enough. But for him to actually be active after three months? That spelled trouble.

The hunter added, "A copy of a prophecy was given to us by Lord Apollo from his Oracle."

I whispered to Percy another question. "You have an Oracle?"

"Yeah, Rachel Dare. I think she's on vacation in Japan right now for her family's business," Percy whispered back, his intent eyes resting on the hunter. There was hint of sadness in his voice that I didn't understand.

"Oracles go on vacation?"

"Long story," Percy whispered back impatiently and turned to Chiron.

"Let's hear it then," Chiron said, nodding towards the hunter. One of the hunters took something out of her pocket. It was a folded piece of paper, which I assumed to contain the prophecy. She handed it to who I assumed to be the leader of the Hunters. The leader opened her mouth and began to read the prophecy.

"_Deceit and treachery for an honest deed,_

_Half-bloods of the rival brothers succeed,_

_Two girls crossing the world's end,_

_The son of Hades feels the pain of the end,_

_A broken promise sees a debt repaid,_

_All of these the prophetess shall aid."_

"Well that was less grim than it could have been," a Hecate camper remarked.

"You're telling me," an Apollo camper, Will, said, "What's up with 'the prophetess shall aid?' Of course Rachel's supposed to help the quest members by delivering the prophecy."

"No kidding," affirmed Will's companion. Deep inside, I thought there was more to this prophetess line than meets the eye, or rather, ear.

"The prophecy is pretty straightforward," Chiron said, "We choose Thalia's two companions and send them after her."

"You can't be sure, Chiron," grandma interrupted, "Prophecies hide more than they reveal."

"But when it said 'the world's end,' does it mean an apocalypse?" I asked. Percy grimaced, as if he was saying, 'that's not new to me.'

"Maybe, maybe not. The end of the world might mean an apocalypse or even crossing time," explained Annabeth. "But it could also mean the ancient borders. The Ancient Greeks believed the Earth was flat. Nowadays those ends would be located in the ocean."

"Possible," Chiron agreed, inclining his head.

"_Deceit and treachery for an honest deed_," a Hephaestus camper said, twirling a wrench with his gloved right hand. It was probably a comfort thing. "That's ironic."

"Not much inference can be drawn from that. Things we do can be interpreted in many ways, as is the verse," grandma said, her eyebrows furrowed.

"The prophecy said that half-bloods of the rival brothers would succeed,"  
an Ares camper said. "Does it mean children of the Big Three?"

"We think so," the hunter said, nodding. Great. More Big Three stuff. My gut instincts are telling me this isn't going to end well. If anything, I had a small chance of being on this quest. That is, the choice would be between me, the rookie new kid of the sea god, and Percy Jackson, a quest veteran. It wasn't a hard choice. "I agree with Chiron. We should send two of the Big Three demigods to Thalia."

"Thalia would be Zeus' representative," the other hunter continued, "Nico for Hades-"

"The prophecy said that Hades' son would feel 'the pain of the end' and that does NOT sound good," Annabeth noted. Everybody stared at him, and for a second, Nico looked like he wanted nothing more than to disappear into the shadows; Nico wasn't a limelight-lover. "He could... die."

Silence followed. All eyes were still on the child of Hades, and his jaw was clenched, like he was steeling himself for the decision. Chiron asked, "Will you accept the quest, Nico?"

"If the Oracle says it's for the best then I believe her," Nico said, regarding the centaur with his piercing gaze. He let out a sigh. "I'll go. I know my way around the West Coast good enough."

"But as for Poseidon's spawn," the hunter continued, eyeing Percy and me like we were prey. Okay, this was it. "Which of them should go?"

"It wouldn't hurt for them to undergo a challenge," Clarisse said, eyeing me with renewed excitement. "Winner goes on the quest. Sounds good?"

A hubbub ensued among those present. A lot of campers were nodding.

I pressed my lips in a thin line. It made sense that Percy and I should be subjected to some kind of deadly test, Ancient Greek style. I have no doubt he'd win, but it wouldn't be practical. The more we delay, the more this dark force could develop. And this Thalia may need our help ASAP. I wasn't the only one who thought this.

"We don't have the time to test both of them," the hunter argued, "It will delay the mission. The dark force grows stronger as we speak."

"Percy knows Thalia and Nico best," suggested Annabeth before I could open my mouth. There was a murmur of agreement among the campers, a few of which nodded. I saw grandma catch Chiron's eye.

"I think the hunters have the right to choose the third member," Chiron said, "It is their mission after all."

"I think the young girl should go," the huntress said, "It feels right."

Wait. WHAT? How could she choose me over Percy? How should it feel right?

"For a hunter," Nico murmured in a dark tone, unintentionally answering my question. He and the Aphrodite campers eyed the hunters with distaste. In contrast I thought the hunters were wicked, and I found this behaviour of his strange. I glanced at Percy, and his eyes were unfocused, like he was having a vision or something. Or maybe he was just thinking deeply. Or maybe both.

"Jean should go," Percy announced, his eyes on the green table before us. His fists were clenched inside his jacket pockets where I knew he concealed his pen/sword. I drew a sharp intake of breath and stared at my half-brother like he was going bonkers.

"Uh... Percy?" I asked in a small voice, uncertain about how I should react.

"Are you sure?" Chiron asked, completing my unfinished query. Grandma was studying me again with her patented 'child of Athena' stares, like she was doing a non-contact analysis of me.

"Not to degrade Jean as a half-blood, but," Annabeth said, glancing at me, "Do you actually think-"

"The prophecy said that two girls would cross the world's end," Percy said, "I think it means her and Thalia. And the broken promise..."

His voice trailed away and he caught Nico's eye.

"Besides, she's Poseidon's child too," he added hastily, "She'll survive."

Percy averted his eyes from Nico's, but what they thought I didn't know. I would have to wheedle that little secret out of them somehow. Meanwhile, the two hunters nodded at each other after a few seconds of muttering.

"The hunters choose Jean," one of them said.

"Everything's settled then; Nico and Jean leave for the West Coast first thing tomorrow. This council is adjourned," declared Chiron, and everyone started for their respective quarters. I followed Percy, but Chiron had other plans.

...

My half-brother Percy was a guy of a thousand words. From conversations with other campers and stories he'd tell me, I've discovered that he's been on loads of quests, like that one with the sea of monsters and the labyrinth. In fact, it seems like he's widely-known among immortals and mortals alike, partly because he is the only known half-blood son of Poseidon.

That didn't make me feel better though, since I knew I had a lot to live up to, being the daughter of the sea god and all. Add that to the pressure grandma was giving me, and you've got one pretty stressed twelve-year-old. [1] Darn, I wasn't even that good with my fighting skills. He's definitely the better candidate for this quest. Why did they- Percy included- choose me?

"All right, you two, listen up." Chiron clip-clopped in front of Nico and me. His long ponytail swished across his behind in an impatient fashion. Dionysius sulked on a chair behind the centaur. A can of Diet Coke on the table, where Mr. D was playing solitaire. "This quest I'm sending you in is a reconnaissance mission. The objective is to find out what exactly is happening and what can be done with the situation."

The palomino centaur regarded both of us with sweeping eyes, like a coach in a pep talk before a big match.

"Nico, you know what the Titans are capable of. Do not act rashly."

Nico nodded grimly.

"As for you," Chiron addressed me, "I know you are capable of working well with new things."

"Water is a versatile element," I said, remembering one of grandma's endless proverbs, "When it is trapped, it would be able to find a way to flow freely. It does not like being restrained."

"Do you have any idea which Titan is behind it all?" Nico asked. I half-expected him to say Kronos, but he didn't.

"I am not certain," Chiron answered carefully, "Not all of the Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus. Most of them have been in hiding after the last war. For them to resurface in a few month's time means they have something suspicious in their sleeves."

"I wonder what this Titan's up to," I murmured, thinking of the possibility of another war and mentally shuddering.

"That is what you are supposed to find out," Chiron said with a tone of finality. "You leave at sunrise."

...

Percy was sitting on his bunk when I entered the Poseidon cabin. When he turned towards me, his face wore a light expression but I suspected that he was feeling just as serious as I felt. I asked him why he refused the offer to be on the quest, but he just grinned and said, "You go on and have some fun."

I opened my mouth to ask again, but he stood up from his bunk. "You'll need to pack."

Good point. Packing didn't take long though. It was just a matter of shoving an extra change of clothes, demigod rations, a purse of drachmas, and mortal money (ask grandma where she got it; I don't know) in my trusty knapsack. I zipped the bag shut and let go of the crystal keychain one of my Japanese friends gave me.

Within a few minutes, I was ready. I glanced at Percy and hesitated. Oh darn, how did they say this again? Speak now of forever hold your piece.

"Do you really think I deserve to be on the quest?" I asked, looking at him right in the eye. The nervousness in my voice just… spilled out. Percy nodded.

"You've been trained, you'll be fine," Percy answered, clapping me at the back bracingly. "I went on my first quest after just a week of training."

I nodded to show I heard him. Well, it had to do for me. We stood in silence for a while; Percy checking my bag every now and then to check if we missed anything, and me staring anywhere but at my half-brother.

"Gut instincts," he said, out of the blue.

"Excuse me?"

"You asked me why I chose you," he replied, his green eyes studying the walls of our cabin. "I followed my gut instincts."

He smiled at me then, trying to assure me that what he said was true. His eyes told me something else though, like something was troubling him. But before I could figure out what it was, he turned his back on me and dragged himself to his own bunk.

"I suppose so," I managed, taking my bag from him and sitting on my bunk.

"Listen," Percy said form his bunk, "I know you're nervous but that's part of it. It's part of the adventure. But you're not going to be able to go if you don't get sleep."

The moment he mentioned sleep, I yawned and felt the exhaustion. I settled myself under my covers and muttered, "Thanks, brother."

I thought I heard him mumble something before sleep claimed me. Then the dream started.

…

In my dream, I saw a young girl sitting cross-legged on a rock by a cliff overlooking endless fields whipped about by high winds. A few feet to her right coursed a raging waterfall. The sound of water comforted me in the otherwise harsh environment. Everything looked dark, and the sky wasn't clearly defined.

The girl breathed deeply. I noticed her chalk white skin and pristine white dress which brought out her dark braided hair, at the end of which was a jet black crystal flower. The aura she emitted was enough evidence that this girl is not human, but possibly, an immortal.

I approached the girl carefully, and I noticed from her closed eyes, straight back and adjoined hands, that she was meditating.

"Excuse me," I said softly, "Could you tell me where I am?"

"Where we are is of no importance," the girl told me. Her voice was melancholy yet ancient at the same time. She stood up with fluid grace and lifted one leg and both arms. The crane. Her white dress billowed softly in the otherwise strong winds. Strange.

"I don't understand," I mumbled, my brow creasing.

"That is good," the girl said. How could not understanding be good? "Poseidon's daughter, yes? I hear your mother died a violent death at the hands of Zeus. Pity. She has a remarkable soul."

I clenched my jaw. Why can't deities leave my head alone?

"You shall meet your mother in due time," the girl said with a serene smile. Her eyelids opened to reveal familiar black eyes. Where have I seen them again? "I've been waiting for you, Sui Jean Yamato. We have to talk. But this is not the right moment. We shall meet again another time. Soon."

She waved a hand and the scene began to fade.

"Oh, and do say hi to my brother," she added before everything went black.

That's when I woke up to find myself tangled in the sea green bed sheets on the cold floor of the Poseidon cabin.

...

I chose not to speak of my dream to anyone, not even grandma. There were just too many unexplainable things, like who the deity and her brother were, and why I had to meet her again.

A few minutes before the sun rose, Chiron made sure we had everything we needed from demigod rations to our weapons. Remembering the time when I run away from grandma, I made sure my katana was at my side before leaving the cabin with Percy. He'd wanted to see me off, he said, but he talked more with Nico in a hushed voice.

I would have eavesdropped on them, but grandma pulled me aside. When she got to camp, she was more protective of me than ever. She kept asking if it was really okay for me to go on the quest when I was easily the least trained in the group. I thought she was worried about me, but then she said something about me slowing the group down. That only fuelled my determination to do this quest. I'm not going to be the weakest link! I'll show her...

"Impertinent as ever," grandma huffed, shaking her head crossly; "Recklessness has always been your flaw. Remember: prophecies are vague. They do not exist to prove one's worth; they exist to give guidance, however misleading it could be. Are you absolutely sure you want this?"

I nodded vigorously, feeling the minute pang of hurt when she said I'd slow the group down. She gazed at me with a strange expression on her face, like she was hesitating to tell me something. Grandma shifted her weight from one foot to another, and her grey eyes darted from my jacket, to my knapsack, to my shoes, and even to my katana sheathed safely at my side.

"_Obaa-chan_ [3.]," I said, locking eyes with her, "We're just going to find out what this dark force is all about and see what we can do. Nothing special. No I-must-go-and-save-the-world stuff."

"Say good bye already!" I heard Nico shout from below the hill where Argus waited with his van. I saw Chiron pat the impatient Nico on the back with a rueful expression on his bearded face.

"I need to go," I told her, turning my heel. But grandma grabbed my shoulder _very_ tightly.

"Sui Jean Yamato," she said in a low voice. I knew this was the real message; she never used my full name unless she had to tell me something fatally serious, like that incident with the black-eyed stranger. "The reason why I got delayed in coming here was because of two things. I got attacked by monsters, naturally, and because I had a dream. I couldn't bring myself to tell you about it but now. Jean-"

"HURRY UP!"

"-beware of your friends. _Kyotsukete, Mizu-chan_." [4.]

I opened my mouth to say that I always am, but she gave me a brief hug and kiss before pushing me downhill and shoving me inside the van. I poked my head outside the window where I watched Half-blood hill grow smaller by the distance.

_Kyotsukete, Mizuki-chan_, my grandma had said. As cold as she was moments before, the last sentence sent a wave of warmth in me. Grandma did have that fuzzy inside, though she didn't show it often.

Argus drove us as far as the bus station and dropped us there. A few hours later, Nico and I were on our way to the West coast via a bus. Ugh, west coast. It brought back a lot of bad memories. But we had a mission to do, and I was determined to do my best.

"Are quests always based on a prophecy?" I asked to break the looooong silence that filled our journey. Nico nodded.

"What's Thalia like?" I asked again as our ride sped along the road. Nico looked at me thoughtfully as we passed by a school with a few cheerleaders practicing a pyramid dismount on the grounds.

"She is Zeus' daughter and Artemis' lieutenant," he replied indifferently, but in a low voice so that other people wouldn't hear. I scowled when he mentioned my daddy's lightning-bolt-wielding brother. "She has a strong personality, a bit like Percy. They clash with each other more often than they should, but they're good."

"I'm guessing she has lightning abilities," I said, remembering the lightning and the plane crash. Need I remind you: near-death experiences tend to drill the memories in your head. The bus we were in had a pretty fast driver, but it was easily outstripped by a few sports cars.

"She has the ability to shock people on contact and control lightning to some extent," Nico confirmed, "She's powerful so don't underestimate her..."

"Sure," I muttered, toying with my bag's strap.

"...like I did with your case," he finished. I raised my eyebrows and let out a chuckle.

"I bet you didn't see that one coming," I said, grinning. Nico huffed and stared out the window.

"It was..." he began.

"Scary? Freaky?" I interrupted. He stayed silent and I grinned wider. "It scared you! I'm sure it was really-"

"Unexpected," Nico finished in annoyed voice. He spared me a glance. "Shut it, will you? It's not funny."

"Sure, and it's funny when you summon a bunch of undead... things from underground!" I shot back, and Nico turned his back on me in response.

"All right," I said, when he didn't respond. Nico was still staring out the window and he was as still as a hunting dog on its prey. "I promise that I won't immobilize you again, happy now?"

Nico turned towards me, positively alarmed.

"What? Allergic to-"

I never got to finish that witty remark, though. The bus crashed.

The driver yelled in outrage and passengers screamed. Okay, we didn't really crash. The bus had toppled on its side, like it had run over something really big or something big hit it. I winced when I heard other vehicles crash or honk their horns. Passengers started climbing out of the window and shaking their heads in dismay. A few swore so badly that I was sure grandma would have covered my ears if she'd been here.

While they were muttering about reckless drivers and what-not, I climbed out the window and helped Nico haul himself out of the bus. But both of us didn't mutter anything about being reckless. And that was because the group of cheer leaders from earlier were staring avidly at the toppled bus. A few worn out pompoms lay on the ground a few feet from the bus.

"I know you're there, demigods," the blond-haired empousai with the red and white pompoms crooned in a singsong voice which annoyed me. "We're hungry; why don't you come out and feed us?"

"Do pompoms make good weapons?" I asked Nico with a raised eyebrow. I spared him a second glance when he didn't respond. First, his eyes were unfocused, and second, he was gazing open-mouthed at the cheerleaders, which wasn't like him at all. "Uh... Nico?"

"OW!" My companion gasped in pain when I kicked him in the shins for good measure. Nico flinched and glared, but when he saw my grim expression, he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Not so hard," Nico complained sheepishly, rubbing the spot I hit.

The blonde turned towards us with a nasty grin on her face. "Found you," she said.

He took out a switchblade and I had a sneaky feeling the switchblade worked like Percy's pen/sword. But before I could ask, he turned and ran away from the wreckage. "Those are empousai, like the monster who attacked you at the West Coast. Look through the Mist!"

My grandma told me about the Mist being able to fool mortals and demigods (not always) about what they see. I knew if I looked really hard, I could see through its illusion. I did, and only then I saw them for what they are: one leg of bronze, and the other animal-like and furry. One of the 'cheerleaders' bared her yellowed teeth as she sniffed the air with much gusto.

"We probably smell like two chunky pieces of _takoyaki_ to them," I muttered matter-of-factly as I ran beside him. Nico shook his head crossly. "What? I'm not a fan of sushi!"

It wasn't long before they caught up with us. Fields of weeds surrounded us, and the

"Girls," the blonde said, "Meal time."

The group of five empousai attacked. We were outnumbered, but we had no choice but to fight.

That night of horror came back to me and I felt a strong urge to scream. I turned to my companion, who was sizing the monsters up. _You've been trained,_ Percy told me last night. _You'll do fine._ Percy's right. I was trained. I could fight this time. I won't be helpless, and I could protect the people from these monsters. They only wanted demigods. I won't be at the sidelines watching other able people, like grandma or Nico, fight alone. I could help.

Almost mechanically, my katana was drawn out. Nico had somehow produced his black sword out of the switchblade. Nico was making better progress with his three monsters than me, but I shut out the thought and focused on the set of fangs about to rip my guts out.

The brunette and the blond circled around me, and they flashed their teeth.

"You know," I said, focusing on how I should counter their attack, "You guys should audition for monster toothpaste commercials."

Both hissed angrily, then jumped towards me. I quickly rolled to one side, and listened to the sickening crunch of the two monsters as they collided in mid air. When I got to my feet, the blond had recovered.

"Naw," I told her, "Maybe not. You smell funny."

The brunette snarled angrily and threw her remaining pompom at the same time Blondie struck, but I held my katana ready. I evaded the pompom but got a fist in my gut. Winded, I got down on one knee. I felt their breaths on my back, but I won't give up yet. My katana was still in my hand, and I moved it in one swift slash behind me. It sliced deep in the brunette empousai's guts. I'm going to spare you the details of how icky her insides are.

In the blink of an eye, the monster burst into dust. People screamed. I had no time to think about what the mortals saw; my wide eyes were on the dust at my feet. My heart pounded in my chest as I yelped in triumph that I had successfully killed one monster.

"Newbie," I heard Nico mutter. I turned in time to see him roll his eyes. Before I could snap back, he grabbed my wrist and we ran to the hills in the distance. The other three empousai followed us, running as fast as their mismatched legs could carry them.

Nico and I hid through a relatively wide crevice, and the darkness thickened around us. So that's what he was getting at. He could bend the shadows so that the monster could lose sight of us. And shadow-rich fissure was one of the perfect hiding places for this guy.

"We had to get away from bystanders," Nico explained once we were well-hidden. I understood; the Mist probably showed that we attacked five innocent cheerleaders while things were really the opposite. And even if empousai feed on blood, we didn't want any casualties.

"Come out, my dear little demigods!" one of them taunted as she passed by our hiding place. The other sniffed at us longingly. I thought she would attack us, but she stalked off after her remaining companion.

"That was close," I said when I decided the two monsters were out of earshot. A wave of relief washed over me when I sensed a third breathing sound not too far from us.

"Hell hound!" yelled Nico, and we took off at a sprint away from our hiding place, where sure enough, glowing red eyes dotted the dark crevice.

The hell hound leapt right over us and turned a good 180 degrees. It stared right at us with big red eyes and it was sniffing the air as though it smelled something really good for dinner. We probably did, because his barked, showing his sharp yellow teeth. Nico raised his sword, but I saw the two empousai coming in from behind.

The hell hound barked again, and ran towards us. I thought it was going to attack us, but it had bitten one of the three empousai. She disintegrated as the other two vanished in a burst of flame. Then hell hound came bounding towards us, eventually hitting Nico right at the gut with its big black paw. My companion gasped as the air rushed out of him.

I acted quickly, and pretty soon the hound was sporting a wound on its side. It growled at me, but at least it off Nico now. The hellhound bared its yellow fangs at me menacingly when it realized that my sword point was right in front of its nose.

"That's a baby hellhound," Nico cried out loud. He was on his feet and he had his black sword in switchblade form again. I ignored him and continued to eye the hell dog warily. I noticed a few scabs in its jet black fur, and how small the piano-sized hell hound would have looked compared to the truck-sized Mrs. O'Leary. But it certainly smelled the same. "Let it go!"

"So you want me to put my guard down and start playing fetch with a hell pup? Are you mad?" I cried out, and the son of Hades nodded. Slowly, I lowered my sword and sheathed it.

"You are crazy," I muttered darkly as the hell hound happily pounced on him. Even though it limped slightly from its fresh wound, its tail wagged excitedly and its huge tongue raked Nico's scrunched up face. Then again, it wasn't so bad, I thought, grinning. "I think it likes you."

"Heel!" Nico ordered, and the hound obliged. I raised an eyebrow. While Nico had certain authority over Underworld creatures as Hades' kid, I doubted following specific orders were part of his abilities. The wild hound knew how to obey commands? Perhaps it wasn't as wild as I thought it was.

Nico pointed at a black band running around the hound's neck: a collar. He ran his hands around it and when he resurfaced from the hound's dark fur, he clutched something white in his hand which he shoved in his pocket.

"It's trained," I observed, vaguely wondering who its trainer was. But other matters were at hand. "Okay, now that we're done with the hell hound, let's go find another ride."

Nico and I started to walk away, but the hell hound followed hell boy and sniffed his jacket eagerly. Nico looked surprised, but then he took out a really big biscuit the size of an ordinary human hand. He raised it high, and the hound followed the biscuit with hungry eyes.

"Hell hound treats," Nico explained as he threw the biscuit away. The hell hound caught and swallowed it in one bite. Then it barked and wagged it tail. Nico started to walk away, but it bounded towards him and sniffed his shoes. I bet it was thinking that Nico smelled familiar. Nico tossed a few nasty-looking (and smelling) 'treats' to me, saying, "Might come in handy."

"I think it wants to follow you," I told him as I pocketed the treats in my jacket. But the hell hound barked and ran off. Ten feet away, it turned towards us and barked again.

"No," said Nico, "I think it wants to lead us somewhere."

Nico started to follow it, but I protested. "What if it's a trap?"

He held up his switchblade. "I think we're good enough to hack through a few monsters. And besides, we may get a lead on this Titan. This hellhound didn't come by coincidence."

I sighed and followed.

It was late afternoon when we reached the reached the hell hound's hidey-hole. It was a building of Greek architecture. Its facade had several columns that supported a dome on top aside from a statue of a Caucasian man with a horned head dress that welcomed visitors. What was strange about it was how good it looked despite being the only building standing in the middle of hills beside a river. River was good. River meant water. Water means I have a friend.

"Observatory?" I muttered. My hand wandered to my sheath. "Well-kept, but apparently deserted."

"Don't be too sure," Nico warned me.

The hell hound barked. Then it slid through a door at the side of the building. I drew out my katana, and Nico had his sword out. With caution, we crept inside. The door led to a poorly-lit hallway. Cracks, cobwebs and dust greeted us everywhere which said that the place hadn't been inhabited by humans for a quite some time. The hell hound was nowhere to be seen, but Nico and I walked through the passage anyway.

We reached a fork road, and we were just wandering which way to go when our friendly neighborhood empousai appeared right at the entrance. With a few friends to boot. If there were two of them remaining, there were now no less than seven.

"There you are!" the one at the lead said in a pleasantly sweet voice. She turned to the one at the lead. "That's them, mistress."

Her face was stamped with glee, but the smile disappeared when she saw the lead empousai's face scrunch with wrath. "Mistress?"

The leader immediately grabbed her throat. "You tried to kill them, didn't you?"

"I-I-d-d-don't-"

"You attempted to slay them without checking their identities? You know Master need these two particular half-bloods!" The empousai screeched as the leader's grip on her throat tightened with every word.

"What do we do?" I asked Nico, glad that the enemies had a slight distraction. The other empousai stepped back from the enraged leader. "Run?"

Nico inclined his head slightly, not wanting to lose sight of the monsters. "Now."

Nico took off to the right, I took the left path. I cursed loudly (grandma wouldn't hear anyway) because getting split up was not intended, and it is a BAD thing. The mismatched footsteps of the monsters indicated my pursuers were on my trail. I turned corners, hoping to lose the monsters. When I reached another fork path, I turned right, hoping to run into Nico. My hopes weren't high. The curved hallway, thankfully, was deserted. But it looked different than the other parts of the building. It had decent lights, was clean, and it looked like it was used by who-knows-what kind of creature.

Breathing heavily, I stopped and leaned on the wall to catch my breath. I cocked my head, trying to hear the sound of impending monsters, but I heard none. My left hand still clutched my katana, and my right touched something cold and smooth. Glass, I thought.

I turned and found myself facing a one-way glass showing a small room where two people were conversing. Their backs were turned so I couldn't see who they were, but I knew that one was a girl younger than me, and a boy in his late teens. Both were wearing black coats, and their body language showed how serious the situation was. They were arguing about something. And by the way the taller coated dude was flailing his arms, I knew it was dead serious. To my left, a door faced another dimly-lit corridor. What else do you expect me to do? I started towards the door and my arm inched towards the knob.

Something moved at my right, and my instincts took over. In a flash, I was unnerved to see a dagger's blade an inch from my neck. In addition, a lock of my hair drifted to the floor. The person holding the dagger stared at the tip of my katana warily with electric blue eyes which seemed to radiate pure energy.

My first impression was that she could have been one of those kick-butt spies I saw in American movies but I thought better of it. For one thing, she and on her black hair sat a shiny diadem which clashed horribly with her dark leather jacket, camouflage pants and boots. A bow and a few arrows were strapped on her back. And did I mention that she sported a black shirt saying 'I know a hundred ways to kill Barbie'?

"Name yourself," she demanded. Her voice was strong and commanding, like she was used to giving orders. Her eye twitched slightly as I'd made a good diagonal rip on her otherwise good shirt.

"Why do you care?" I asked in a low voice, not lowering my katana. I labelled her as an opponent, but her outfit definitely reminded me of Artemis' hunters back at camp, except for the diadem, which gave me the impression that this girl was some kind of kick-butt princess.

"WAIT!"

Nico's yell echoed off the walls and his footsteps grew louder as he approached us. He was running from the other end of the hallway, and he was waving his arms wildly to catch our attention.

"Nico?" Both of us shouted in unison we turned to towards hell boy. I lowered my katana and she, her dagger. Then we looked at each other.

"You know him?" we asked simultaneously, and raised our weapons again. Nico stared at us, then at our raised weapons.

"We've got to go," he told us urgently when he caught up.

"What?" I asked.

"Why?" asked princess blond head. What?

Nico pointed towards the end of the hallway he came from, and took off. Sure enough, more than a dozen monsters emerged from the dimly-lit hallway. More than we could handle. Hmm. I didn't know the scent of death on him was more appealing to monsters than my sea scent.

"Time to go!" I agreed.

I spared a glance at the room, but the two people were gone.

The thundering footsteps of monsters made me sprint as fast as I could to a monster-free space. Monsters would surely make gourmet snacks out of us and I had no intention of finding out how they would. Thalia shot arrow after arrow at the monsters. She had deadly accuracy, even if she was shooting arrows while running. I tried not to show an impressed expression on my face.

"Thalia, Jean. Jean, Thalia," Nico introduced as we ran for our lives.

"She tried to kill me!"

"So did you!"

"You drew out your weapon first!"

"No, you did!"

"SHUT UP!" roared Nico.

Green-grey eyes met blue; we would have cut each other up, if not for the monsters coming behind us. Both of us settled for running and glaring in the meantime. All three of us turned a corner. And spotted a dead end. We all cursed in Ancient Greek.

Thalia took something out of her pocket. It was a very small bottle of green liquid, and she held it like someone would a grenade. By this time, I learned not to judge the things as they looked, and I stared at the bottle warily. I thought I saw that in the Arts and Crafts building, and it was handled by the Hephaestus kids before.

"I think we need a bit of excitement," Thalia said, and threw the bottle at the obstruction. What did they call the green substance again? Greek fire? Oh, it was that substance used to-

_KA-BOOM! _

The good thing: we now had a wide escape hole leading to the river.

The bad things: we had no rope for climbing down the building. Monsters were still coming up behind us, and more would come, judging by the explosion and the alarm that sounded. Those two people would be alerted as well.

Typical. The cons outweigh the pros. We could go to prison for destroying the wall of a building, but it was the least of our worries. We really needed to get out of here.

"We have to jump," Nico said, looking down apprehensively at the rushing water below. Our little chase led us right at to the other side of the building. It was dark, but we should be safe by the time we get to the water. It's a long way down, I thought apprehensively. Thalia paled, but Nico grabbed both our wrists and we leapt.

...

Inside the room, the young girl grimaced as the elder boy marshalled all the monsters inside the building. 'Darn children of the Big Three!' she thought. After speaking to the monsters in Ancient Greek, the boy dismissed the monsters and gazed at her with silver eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked the elder boy. Her hand gripped her weapon tightly. The boy smiled—no playfulness there. The girl pursed her lips as he approached and patted her on the shoulder.

"This should make things more interesting," he murmured.

...

**Author's Note**: Corrections, reviews, criticism, and flames are welcome. Oh, and if you're wondering, Percy officially won't be on the quest. Maybe he helps, maybe he doesn't. That's all I'm saying.

Next chapter: Jean narrowly avoids sporting a mermaid costume, and

[1.] I cut and paste the paragraph from the previous chapter to this chapter because it seemed more appropriate for this than the previous chapter.

[2.] Courtesy of a mentor.

[3.] Grandmother in Japanese.

[4.] Take care, Mizuki (Jean's Japanese name).


	7. Ch 6 The Prince of the South

**Of Titanic Proportions**

A PJO fanfic by haganeochibi

**Author's Note:** Let's just say I finally got some free time in my muse is willing to work with me. In this chapter and in the others that would follow, I'm going to switch to a third person POV from time to time for convenient reasons. Without further ado, meet Ash Starkey!

"_He smells like dead people!"_ ~Porkpie, PJO: The Battle of the Labyrinth

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Prince of the South**

"What were you going in there for, anyway?" Nico asked as all three on us plopped on the only bed-like structure: a haystack. The nearest sanctuary we could find was a small farm, where we decided we'd stay for the night. Or at least, I did.

Hey, you try to control the current of a river (whose naiad wasn't very helpful) and you wouldn't be able to walk very far. Thankfully, the monsters didn't chase us once we made our wet getaway. The reason remains in the dark, though. And speaking of the dark, the barn we were in didn't even have a decent lamp, so the only source of light would be the moon shining in the jet black night sky.

Thalia, who wasn't keen on having a light source so that we could stay hidden, had long since regained the color on her face since we escaped the building of monsters. She was the only one who didn't seem tired, and I'm guessing it's something about being a huntress. She answered, "Looking for information on this Titan, of course."

"Funny how you wanted to do that on your own," I remarked. Despite being tired, my tongue felt like it wasn't done with the witty remarks.

"Your point being?" The bright silver aura which surrounded Thalia intensified.

"I thought it was reckless," I told her flatly. "Now they know we're on this mastermind's tail."

"I was in control until you came along!" Thalia pointed out, standing up. I stood up too, and it didn't help that Thalia was more than a foot taller than me.

"You're suggesting it's my entire fault?"

"If you hadn't shown up I'd probably know everything about it right now!"

"And who was the one who attacked me?"

"SHUT IT!" Nico roared, and the shadows all around us thickened. Both of us glared at Nico, who had sat up from his position in the hay stack and was looking particularly disgruntled. He said in a painfully low voice, "Look, we're all tired, and I wanna sleep. D'you mind if you turn down the volume of your bickering, or would you like me to have someone do it for you?"

The implied threat stimulated an interesting mental image of me getting pulled underground and sleeping with an animated Halloween icon. Knowing full well that Hell Boy could easily pull off that little summoning technique he's so proud of, I stayed silent and glared at the huntress.

"No, I'm done," Thalia murmured, eyeing me like a hunter does with their prey. It was pretty intimidating, but I stood my ground. For a moment there, I thought she was going to lunge and strangle me, but then she said, "I'll take first watch."

She strode toward the barn entrance. The animals inside sniffed at her curiously as she passed. I thought I would like the daughter of Zeus, but like the myths, I now realized why Zeus and Poseidon never got along so well. Frustrated, I let out a big gush of air before plopping back on my own hay stack.

"Nico, you know Thalia, right? Is she really like that?" I asked.

"I don't know Thalia well," he mumbled from his hay stack. "She joined the Hunters shortly after I went to camp."

There was an uncomfortable silence after that. I noted the unnaturally dark tone Nico used to refer to the hunters. Indeed, something was up with Nico and the Hunters. Does Nico have a grudge with the handmaidens of Artemis?

I opened my mouth to ask that question but one glance at Nico told me he was done with talk for the night.

"Right," I said and cleared my throat. "_Oyasumi_." [1.]

"Hades knows how much I hate his arguments with Persephone," Nico muttered darkly. He lay back down and closed his eyes. The earth rumbled. "Oh come on dad, you know you just like Persephone's attention on you."

...

As much as I wanted to see the sunrise here in America during my turn as watch guard, I decided against it. As soon as the sky started to brighten, I ran inside to wake up my cousins.

"Percy's younger sister, huh?"

Thalia Grace was sitting cross-legged on the ground. On the opposite side of the haystack, lay Nico, who looked sound asleep after his last shift.

"Glad to have you on board," she said in a level-voice. I stared at her curiously; we'd been yelling at each other the previous night. Could she really put our little tirade aside easily? Thalia held out her hand. "Look, if we want to finish this quest, we'll have to work together."

"Sure, I guess?" I hesitated, but shook her hand all the same. The anger in Thalia's eyes was absent. Her bright eyes just sparked with energy; she was raring to go out and finish our quest.

"It's a nice change," she said, grinning. "Percy not coming then?"

I raised an eyebrow.

"Percy's known to break rules; he did that when we rescued Lady Artemis from Mt. Othrys," she explained. Thalia turned her back to me as she slipped on her boots. "He wasn't supposed to be the fifth quest member yet he somehow found his own way to do so."

"Water is unpredictable," I managed.

"You've got a lot of those Asian nuggets of wisdom up your sleeve," she commented as she stood up and stretched.

"Grandma does," I responded, and my eye twitched slightly. Asians weren't the only ones with proverbs...

"And so does one of my hunters," she echoed, adjusting her clothing. She stood straight when she was done, and added, "Don't get me wrong, but I'm just not into Asian stuff."

"We should leave," she told me shortly and I moved to shake the sleep out of Hell Boy. But Thalia beat me to him. She had this unusual grin on her face which I supposed she used once very very very rarely. I didn't get what was happening until Thalia raised her right hand and flexed her fingers.

Then she grabbed his neck.

I thought she was going to strangle him which would no doubt wake him, but snuff the life out of him too, given Thalia's strength as a Hunter. So you'd just imagine how startled I was when Nico's body arched and he yelled in pain.

I heard a door bang in the distance; Nico's yell was enough to wake up the whole camp, not that we were at camp.

"Let's go!" Thalia cried out. We grabbed our bags and ran towards the fields.

Nico was swearing in outrage. Thalia had a broad grin on her face. I shook my head in exasperation as all three of us sprinted away from the farm. The fields were more than enough camouflage for us, but the owners of the farm wasn't going to let us go without some... fun.

Barks sounded from behind us, and we all knew that we were being pursued by no less than half a dozen dogs. Oh man... monsters we could battle, but dogs?

"Some day we're having!" I exclaimed as we jumped over the fence. Dogs effortlessly leapt over the fence too. I groaned. A silver blur whizzed past my ear, and it was quickly followed by another; Thalia had her bow out, which somehow appeared out of nowhere. Dull _thunks_ meant the arrows hit the spots. I glanced backwards and saw that Thalia didn't aim for the vital spots. Several dogs who got hit at the legs whimpered.

"Thanks for the wake up call! I really could use one of those!" yelled Nico, sarcasm dripping from his voice. Thalia grimaced and continued to shoot arrows.

"LOOK OUT!" I heard Nico yell. My eyes darted forward, and I saw that we were surrounded. Dogs, or rather, the corpses of those dogs were scattered about. Standing behind and in front of us were all too familiar women.

"Look what we have here," a sickly sweet voice cooed.

"More food," another said.

"Our cheerleader friends are back," I told Nico, who immediately had his sword out. A sudden _thwang_ and a whiz past my ear told me Thalia was in action. She shot one empousai straight at the face. I raised my katana and sliced at another. Nico was already making his way towards... no. It couldn't be.

"Hostages," Thalia said, nodding to a tied up teenage boy who looked no older than her and young girl of about ten years old. The empousai holding the thrashing boy had turned to the forest and disappeared, but the poor girl, bound in thick ropes, was half-conscious, but she seemed alert enough to yell at us to run away. Like we would. We had run away enough.

"Jean? Is that you? It's me Mikai. Run!"

"Mi... kai?"

Squinting at the girl's scrawny face, I felt relief at first. Mikai was reported as missing after she left camp. I was just glad she's alive. Then dread. Now she got kidnapped by empousai. I have to save her! Cursing in Japanese, I picked up my pace. I batted another monster at the head before plunging my sword in her torso bitterly. Nico and Thalia were a few steps further, also making their way to the hostages.

Dust was everywhere due to the fallen monsters, but there were more. How could I save Mikai?

"You're not taking our food this time," the empousai guard said. She was also making her way to the forest. Another who was beside her shouted, "we have a deal for you!"

"I don't trust you," I whispered coldly, raising my sword again.

"What do you want?" Thalia demanded.

"Hmm follow us, and the girl lives," the leader said.

"And if we don't?"

"This little half-blood would die. And you, Thalia Grace, would be the one who would protect innocent young girls like this one with your utmost ability, would you not? But really it's soooo easy."

Her captor ran a nail across Mikai's neck. Crimson droplets formed where the nail touched bare skin. Mikai's eyes widened, and she paled even more.

"Heads up!" another voice sounded. It came from the forest, and we all whirled around to see the speaker. The other hostage had somehow freed himself from his captor and apparently, he had just thrown something in our direction. Something not so welcome.

All three of us looked up and saw a sizable bottle of Greek fire in free fall. It would have been good if it was aiming just for the monsters but no, the Fates just had to make it aimed right at us. Thalia, Nico and I ran away from the landing area as fast as we could, and even then we felt the force of the bomb.

When I looked back, dust was everywhere. I couldn't see anyone, but I felt someone grab my hand and drag me away from the battlefield.

"Thanks," I heard Thalia tell him in a constrained voice when we were a good distance from the monsters. The good thing was that we were safe from monsters.

"Wait!" I cried out. "Where's Mikai?"

Thalia hung her head. I turned to Nico helplessly but he shook his head with a few words about buzzing and ear.

"She's not gone, isn't she?" _Even if the bomb landed right in front of her. She had paled in realization that it was her end._

"She has to be alive!" I cried out desperately, half-sprinting towards the smoking bomb site. Nothing but earth not destroyed by the Greek fire. "No. She had to live. She had a full life ahead of her."

I didn't know how long I'd been standing there, but I was jolted back to the real world when I was treated to my very first mild electrocution courtesy of my favourite daughter of Zeus.

"We have to go Jean," I heard her say. I blinked at her hardened blue eyes, and I remembered that she had witnessed deaths in the previous Titan war far more than I had just witnessed, and yet she had stayed strong. As much as I didn't like Thalia, perhaps I should do the same as she had. The question is, could I do it?

...

"I'm Ash Starkey. Half-blood, or at least, I think I am."

"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, lieutenant of Artemis."

"Nico of the House of Hades."

I didn't answer. Introduction formalities were trivial to me. I merely glanced at the window, watching the scenery as they passed by on our way to who knows where. As far as I was concerned, Ash Starkey was the cause of Mikai's... passing. He had, after all, thrown the Greek fire bottle that had destroyed the immediate surroundings, including my friend.

Out of my peripheral vision, I notice Ash taking a glance at me and grimacing. He can label me the weird Asian half-blood for all I care.

"Where are we going, exactly?" I heard Nico ask, as the truck we sneaked into swerve into what I heard the Starkey call, the inter-state.

"An observatory of my own in the south. Pretty safe place."

Thalia nodded stiffly, apparently her dislike of men getting the better of her. And this dislike was treaded on much longer than expected, since it took a long time to reach the observatory run by the Starkey kid and his mother. Maybe it was because we'd had to take a detour (aka switching to-be-hitched vehicles) to avoid a few monster lairs Thalia had pointed out along the way.

"We'll talk later," Thalia had told us hastily during one of the switches when Ash volunteered to find a vehicle.

When we arrived, it was sundown, and we were welcomed at the threshold by a woman of about forty. She had a dignified and intelligent aura about her, like grandma, but something had ailed this woman, taking the brightness in her deep brown eyes and the bounce in her chestnut hair.

"The stars are absolutely bright tonight! Ash and I must show you on our new ship equipped with the most incredible telescope!" she had cried out enthusiastically over dinner, to which Ash ushered us to. A series of coughs claimed Mrs. Starkey, and Ash hurried to her side. I looked away; it reminded me too much of mom. I focused on Thalia whose blue eyes darting around the room. Ash excused himself a little while later and asked us to wait for him in the room while he helped his mother to her quarters.

Thalia promptly pulled Nico and me into one corner of the room.

"Couldn't we just talk about it somewhere else and look less suspicious?" I asked her.

"Noticed this is a blind spot for the security cams," Thalia told me casually. In a more serious tone,

"I did confirm that some big shot Titan's behind this and there're two half-bloods assisting whoever this Titan is. A boy and a girl. Undetermined."

"Anything else?"

"They're talking about some place in the west, and how Apollo would be mad," Thalia said. "But I don't get it."

"Maybe it's got something to do with how the sun travels westward?" I offered. Thalia shook her head crossly. I tried again. "Or something about this Titan needing us. The empousai who chased us nearly killed a comrade because she tried to kill me and Hell Boy."

"Hell Boy?" Thalia cocked an eyebrow with an amused grin on her face. Nico rolled his eyes.

"So what now?" Nico asked, in attempt to remove the spotlight off him.

"We need more information, actually," Thalia admitted, her blue eyes burning into mine. "I can only deduce so much from two half-bloods."

"That's it?"

"Seeing as you interrupted my investigation..."

I felt my temper begin to rise.

"Guys, focus please! We have an unidentified half-blood at our necks..."

"And speaking of half-bloods," I piped up, "this half-blood we just met sounds really suspicious to me. He's hiding a big secret. I mean, why was he caught with Mikai across the country? I'm sure the empousai would have eaten him straightaway."

Thalia nodded. "I noticed the bruise marks on his wrist weren't bad enough to suggest that he'd been tied up for a long time."

"And I don't get why those empousai would separate their prey, especially males," Nico said, shuffling his feet. "There's something going on with this Ash guy. We need to find out what."

"We can't afford to get sidetracked!" argued Thalia. "For all we know, Kronos could be behind this, and that he's gathering another set of followers and he'll be back. And maybe he'll have another half-blood puppet up and running!"

The door suddenly opened with a bang, and Ash Starkey burst from the hallway. "So! I'm guessing you're all tired in this trip, and would like to get some sleep? I'll show you to your quarters!"

Thalia, Nico and I looked at each other with a grim expression before submitting to Ash's request. I felt a strange sensation. Whenever Ash politely asked us to do something, we would comply. This is the third time I felt it, the first two were about dinner and behaving. And I had a gut feeling that we were trapped.

...

On a positive note, it turned out that the observatory had pretty good accommodations, seeing as Nico, Thalia and I had our own rooms to ourselves. Thalia had pointed out that we could use one room, but Ash waved it off. Once Nico and Thalia were in their own rooms, Ash opened a door two corridors from Thalia's room. "You can use this."

I nodded and muttered a quick thank you. I entered the room, which was plainly decorated with white paint and furnished with a single bed, a small bedside desk and a lamp. There was a door which opened to a bathroom, and another at the opposite end of the room which Ash mentioned to have a splendid balcony.

Expecting him to shut the door and leave, I dropped my bag at the edge of the bed and turned to say a cold 'good night,' but I was surprised to find that he was inside my room. My hand immediately hovered over my katana.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he muttered grimly, moving to open the door which, indeed, opened to a balcony with a picturesque view of the beach lit by lanterns at night; the observatory stood on a seaside cliff. He motioned for me to follow him. Keeping my hand on the handle of my katana, I stepped out into the cold night air.

"It's Jean, right?"

I nodded stiffly.

"I'm sorry about the girl, Mikai wasn't she?" Ash said, moving to stand beside me. "You knew her?"

I nodded. "I met her at camp. She's a good friend. But she disappeared a while back and I didn't know if she's just missing or dead. I was glad to have seen her alive, but now..."

"I feel bad too, she seemed like a good person," he said, nodding solemnly. I stared at him questioningly. "We got captured together, remember? We're bound to talk at some point, seeing as our captors weren't smart enough to seal our mouths shut at first."

"How did you get caught? Or better yet, how did you escape?"

He laughed. "I forgot empousai can't charm females. Let's just say I found them to be very very very charming. It's embarrassing really. Escaping was just a matter of saying the right words and placing your tied up hands in the right position! But Mikai... she unwittingly run into my captor's trap. We'd been together for a while."

"How was she?" I asked, turning back to the scenery. I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"What do you think?" Ash asked tauntingly. I glared at him, but he didn't flinch a bit. After a few seconds, he shrugged. "She's a half-blood, remember? She managed to survive by instinct, though she was pretty shaken. She was probably scared too, but tried to hide it. She had her own powers-"

"Powers?"

"She told me she was a child of Hecate," he answered lightly. "She at least had the decency to be dignified at the end."

"She didn't deserve to die that way," I murmured.

"Of course," Ash said, bobbing his head once. "But we all die anyway, and we'll see good ol' Hades and his cronies in the Underworld one time or another. Cheer up; I'm confident she won't be in Tartarus right now."

I nodded meekly, thinking of my own mother as she was tried by the judges. Would she be in Elysium now? She HAD to be. Then the sudden reminder of the Titan's storage place made me remember of the quest and how we'd agreed to find more information.

Apparently tired of our topic, he decided to steer our conversation into a lighter topic. "So, have you been in an observatory before?"

I decided to play along. Putting on a bigger smile on my face, I said, "Once. During a field trip. I busted out the plumbing when someone tried to pull a practical joke on me."

He laughed, buying the sudden mood change. "You busted out the plumbing? Who is your godly parent, o Plumber buster?"

"Poseidon."

Ash whistled. "Big three kid, huh? I thought so. Thalia was Zeus' and Nico was Hades'."

"And you?" I returned the question as I pondered his heritage. I realized at once that I'd touched a nerve. His once jovial expression turned blank, and he cleared his throat loudly.

"I don't want to know."

"I guess we all have our parent issues," I managed, and he blanched. "Although it's not our fault to be born this way, I'm sure we could all live by. Look at my grandma; she's a half-blood from the house of Athena and she lived to a ripe old age!"

"I guess," he murmured, a dark expression clouding his aged face. "I should go inside. Make sure to lock the door when you turn in."

"Wait! I'm sorry I asked about your parentage!" I shouted after him as he stormed inside the room and out into the hallway. I was half-annoyed and half-sorry. "How was I supposed to know about your mom and your dad? Don't act so high and mighty, Starkey; it's not like your mom died because of your godly parent!"

He stopped. Slowly he turned to meet my eyes for one brief moment. In his silver eyes, I saw burning determination. And when he spoke, it seemed he was speaking more to himself than me. "My mom won't. I promise you."

...

Another long day has passed, thought Izumi.

With an uncharacteristic weariness, she approached the Athena cabin from her patrol duty. She slid quietly inside the dimly-lit cabin and closed the door with a dull _click_. She started towards her own bunk, which she had remodelled herself to accommodate her... elderly needs. If she had it her way, Izumi would have had a major renovation done; the cabin looked too fortress-like for her taste. 'More rounds and less of the corners, and maybe a few pillars and watch posts here and there,' Izumi had thought when she spent her first night at camp. Oh how she had been so excited to see her granddaughter's face!

She thought Jean would have been happy about her stay, but the twelve-year-old was oddly confused. Jean tried to mask it by acting happy and smiling, Izumi knew Jean's actions were half-hearted and it showed in her sloppy training. Perhaps the girl had not completely forgiven her? Perhaps Jean still held a grudge against her? And had Jean taken the quest in order to be away from her?

Closing her eyes, Izumi shook her head gently and she took a calming breath. When she opened her eyes again, she met grey eyes not unlike her own. Annabeth Chase was working on her laptop with a blue triangle symbol on the lid, and Izumi suspected it was a gift from Athena herself, if not one of her descendants. Annabeth's grey-streaked hair was tied in a loose ponytail at one side of her head, and the moonlight flooding from the window illuminated various sketches of her architectural designs which were scattered on the bed. Clearly, this wasn't Izumi's bunk.

"Izumi," greeted the startled younger half-blood. Izumi blinked; why was she at Annabeth's bunk? Her own was still further back in the cabin. "Can I help you?"

"Good evening. You're up late, Annabeth," Izumi commented, mentally reprimanding herself for disturbing her sister and for going to another camper's bunk by mistake.

"I'm working on the North side Olympus," Annabeth explained, "the night was refreshing enough for working so I thought I'd get some work done."

Izumi smiled serenely. She knew Annabeth's current big project was the architectural design of Olympus, and that it meant a lot for her sister to do her very best. "Best leave you at it, then."

Izumi had started to move to her real bunk this time when Annabeth said, "You're worried about her."

What Annabeth said was a statement, not a question. Izumi met Annabeth's analytical gaze with somewhat less confidence.

"Worried?" Izumi repeated. "I do not worry; it is a waste of time, a waste of chi. Worrying depletes your energy which could have been used for doing more important things."

"Such as reprimanding the Stolls when they goofed off in weapons class," the younger Athena camper remarked, returning her attention to her laptop. "You have been distracted all day. I can only think of one logical explanation, and that is being worried about Jean."

"Jean can handle herself," Izumi replied, thinking of her shrewdly-bequeathed parting gift and whether or Jean would use it, let alone find it.

Annabeth shrugged and resumed typing away. "If you say so."

...

My dream featured that mysterious lady again, but this time, she was walking through afield with a dark-haired girl, who looked like a female Nico dressed like Thalia. The two girls looked like they were in the middle of a debate because the female Nico's facial expression, but the mysterious lady was smiling serenely. Then she stopped and nudged the Nico-look-alike. I was even more surprised when they looked straight at me.

They could see me? How could they have known I was there?

The Nico-look-alike opened her mouth to speak, but strange lady cut her off with a raised hand.

"You're here again, Jean," the mysterious lady said, smiling. "You seem to have a strange affinity with this place, or maybe me."

'It's not like I wanted to be here,' I thought. The mysterious lady smiled wider.

"I suppose we could chat for a while," the lady said with a little laugh. The female Nico scowled. "Dear little brother is in for a treat. You know the Fates have a way with things even the immortals do not understand. We would know what the destiny of some beings is, and it was my fault here that I told this young lady,"-she motioned to the female Nico-look-alike-"about what would happen in your little sojourn."

She cleared her throat loudly, and continued, "I'm not supposed to tell you two, especially you Sui Jean Yamato, that this quest is a test for you three, as well as your brother Percy. But knowing your ancestors, you may have figured that out already!"

The mysterious lady laughed her lyre-like laugh. "I can say this: the prophecy needs to be reinterpreted in a new light. You are not looking at it hard enough. You have been misguided as to what you wish to see."

"I don't understand," I said. "The prophecy is direct, as you said. We have to investigate about this dark force and stop it. That's it."

"There is more, young one," the lady said. "I pity my brother the most, more than you, I might add."

"But isn't he supposed to 'feel the pain of the end'?" I asked, remembering the prophecy. If the unspoken truth is right, it meant that Nico would die.

"You shall see soon enough." That did NOT feel good for my nerves, considering my nerves were far far away. The lady raised her hand, probably to make my spirit go back to my body, but the Nico-look-alike put a hand on her arm and took a step towards me.

"Please take care of my little brother," she asked, her eyes beseeching me.

"I don't know how to stop things from happening," I admitted, startled by her concern. Why would this girl care so much, and look so much like Nico? Could she be a sister of some sort? "I don't know if I can."

"Please, please take care of him," the girl asked me again. "Promise me you'll do everything you can to help him, you're the only one who can help him!"

"Couldn't you call in on that new leader of your pack, my dear?"

"Father's forbidden me-"

"In conclusion, remember what I told you, and when things happen, you shall figure out what to do when it happens." She smiled at me. "Or die trying."

Suddenly a booming voice rang out through the fields. "MACARIA!"

All of us turned to the source of the sound, which was somewhere behind the lady, who wore an apprehensive expression on her face. And with a swish of her hand, I awoke amidst tangled bed sheets, with my dream leaving me with a feeling of foreboding.

...

I couldn't sleep after that dream. It was five in the morning, and I'd had about six hour's worth of sleep, so I decided to take a shower. Showers always help me think. I let the water cascade down my body as I tried to remember my dream. I remember some girl-Nico asking me to take care of Hell boy when he could obviously fend for himself. Then that booming voice. Macaria? Could that be name of the mysterious lady who advised me to reinterpret the prophecy? How could we, when it was so direct and vague at the same time?

Then there was Ash Starkey. He was this mysterious half-blood with silver eyes. He said he doesn't want to know his godly parent, but chances are, he already knows and doesn't want to tell me. And you have to put the 'mom' factor into the equation.

A sudden knock. A stupid knock disturbed my meditation session.

"Go away," I grumbled.

Another series of knocks. More persistently now.

Grumpily, I willed myself to be dry, put on my clothes and hurried to open the door, which concealed Ash Starkey. With a raised eyebrow, I asked him, "yes?"

"Look, I'm sorry I walked out on you last night," he muttered hurriedly. "But no offense was felt by yours truly. My mom and I..."

His eyes unfocused for the briefest moment. See what I meant about the mom thing? "...let's just say I did have some family issues, but I'm working on it."

I huffed. "You're telling me this because-?"

"It's nothing special, really," he muttered hastily, then paused for a moment. "Actually it is! I just don't want anyone on my bad side, especially you. I like you."

His cheeks reddened and his eyes widened as he realized what he said. "Don't get me wrong! I'm not interested in girls! I like astronomy much much better! [2.] I just meant that you seem to be a great person, and I don't want you as my enemy. Heck, I don't want to be, nor I am your enemy!"

My eyes narrowed through his tirade. "Uh-huh..."

"You know, you have a lot of potential, Jean. I know. I can feel it. You'll do lots of great things," he amended, more seriously now.

Ah flattery. I smiled weakly, averting my eyes from his disconcerting silver eyes. Wait. How did he get those silver eyes? I know grey eyes meant Athena's blood while red eyes meant Hestia's, but silver? [3.]

"And would you mind taking a tour on the ship?"

Wait what? Is Ash asking me out? He sounded like he just did. I stared suspiciously at Ash, who shrugged.

"I promised mom I'd show you guys the ship. So how about it?"

To me, he looked like a puppy begging to go out for a stroll. "No."

"What?"

"I said no. I have to see Nico and Thalia."

"But they'll be there. You'll see them then, I promise. Please let's go see the ship now."

There was that strange sensation again. Without waiting for my answer, I felt him slip something on my wrist and drag me to wherever his ship was. The moment he slipped it the something on my wrist, I instantly felt slightly woozy. I glanced at my wrist as I let myself be dragged. On it was a deep blue crystal pendant which hung from a leather string. And the strange thing with the blue pendant? It was pulsing with an azure aura, and was emitting a strange odor of the sea.

...

"Darn it!" came Thalia's frustrated yell. Thalia had managed to locate Nico after she found that Jean left her things, including her katana, in her room. The hunter had only lifted Jean's bag and sword to explain to the son of Hades, who took the weapon in his hands and studied it for a moment.

"I think she got tricked," Nico suggested, looking up. "I hid in the shadows last night and stalked Ash. He talked to Jean about Mikai and when the topic came to godly parents he walked out. I followed him, but all he did was go to his room and sleep. I think he may have Jean. We've got to find him."

Nico glanced at Thalia, who had paled.

"I think I just realized who those two half-blood masterminds-" Thalia started to say, but then changed course when a sudden _BOOM_ sounded from the other wing of the building. "We need to find Jean now."

Nico and Thalia sprinted towards the sound of the explosion, with Thalia leading the way. They only knew they were on the right path because of the scent of smoke becoming stronger. The scent led them outside the building and down to the port, where the ship had been docked. Even from afar, Nico saw that Ash and Jean stood on the deck of the ship, which was being rocked violently by waves.

"Thalia! Down on the ship!" he yelled just as Thalia skidded to a stop in front of him so suddenly that Nico nearly ran into her. They were near the edge of the cliff where the sea attacked the rocks at the bottom. At one side, a man-made staircase led the way to the docks.

"I... I need to assess the environment," Thalia explained in a shaking voice uncharacteristic of the strong-willed daughter of Zeus. Nico noticed that the hunter took several deep breaths before climbing down the staircase.

"We're at a disadvantage; ships are not our home field," Thalia said, taking out her hunting knives. Nico, however, had a grin plastered on his face.

"Do you have any idea how much dead people are here?" he asked her testily. Then he scowled at the rising sun and added. "I feel good, actually. I have allies. Pity I can't summon them in broad daylight."

...

"I don't know, Ash, I really don't."

"That's too bad," I heard Ash say sadly behind me. "I had hoped that, you know, with you being a child of Poseidon and all, that you could solve the problem."

We were in the control room of the ship, which looked pretty new to me. It smelled fresh, and made me feel at home; and the inviting scent of the sea was a big bonus. I felt stronger. Closing my eyes, I let my thoughts run free and my emotions run wild. Then something powerful nudged at my consciousness, and I nearly lost control.

_Boom._

"Oops," I murmured when, upon opening my eyes, I saw that the controls at the right side of the board had exploded.

A few seconds later, with fire extinguisher in hand, Ash was panting slightly as he put out the fire. Some daughter of Poseidon I am. Still, that unknown force edged into my consciousness, nudging me out of control.

"Are you all right?"

"It's nothing," I murmured, shaking my head. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw his face show an expression of triumph, but he quickly rearranged his features to a more concerned expression when he saw I'd looked.

"I'm sorry Ash, I'm not a marine engineer, nor do I want to be one. I really don't think there's anything wrong with your ship," I told Ash flatly as I stared at the complex controls at a loss. I made my way to the deck, where Ash disposed of the fire extinguisher and I examined the general make-up of the ship.

"It looked okay to me; nothing out of place," I told him for the nth time when he joined me at the deck. "Where's Thalia and Nico?"

"They should be here in a few minutes," Ash told me. I glanced down at the pulsing blue pendant and yanked the leather string from my wrist to take a better look but I found that I couldn't take it off. I frowned. The pendant seemed to be stuck to my skin. Its glow was stronger now, and I felt dizzier than ever.

"I thought you'd have replaced that on your neck," Ash said, "It's supposed to be a necklace."

Shrugging, I said, "I'm weird like that. But I don't feel so good. Can you help me get this off?"

I glanced at Ash with a scowl on my face, only to notice that Ash's face had become cold and distant.

"I can't," he said coolly.

"What?"

"It's yours. You can't take it off. You have to stay here, Jean," he told me shortly. "It's what she wants. What I want. What she needs."

My eyes narrowed in realization, and my temper rose to dangerous levels. Something exploded from above, maybe the control room, but I didn't care.

"You tricked me," I said, anger rising with every syllable. "You lied when you said you'd help us. You lied when you said you're not my enemy. You dragged me here because you'd separate me from my cousins. You probably lied about Mikai."

"They weren't all lies, but the lies... they were necessary," he reasoned.

"What have you done to my cousins?" I demanded, preparing to dump whatever water I could find on this guy. My dislike of him grew with each passing second.

"Nothing yet. But I'm apologizing in advance. You wouldn't understand. You're too young, and you're not me," he said, more to himself than me.

"You're absolutely right," I told him, raising both my arms. I get annoyed it when people said I was too young to understand things. It came with Athena's blood. But I hate it when someone lied deliberately. My temper rose dramatically, and waves rocked the ship and rose high enough from the sea, to swallow Ash whole. I pointed an open palm at him, and closed it very tightly. Ash yelled in pain as I ordered the water to immobilise him. It felt good. I bet he didn't know what hit him judging by his wild eyes. "I. Am. Not. You."

"JEAN!" Thalia's yell pierced the early morning air. In my surprise, I turned towards them to see Thalia hurrying towards the ship with Nico right behind her. They were okay! Relief surged through me. Unfortunately, Ash took advantage of my distraction and loss of control of the water. I just turned in time to see the butt of his sword hit me on the head. Black spots danced in my vision, and I nearly slipped out of consciousness. Nearly. I dropped to my knees on all fours, trying to regain my focus.

"Fancy meeting you here," I heard Ash say as Thalia's and Nico's heavy footsteps thundered on the floor.

"We know you're behind this 'dark force,' Starkey," Thalia said. I felt impressed at the hunter's stroke of genius. That may explain why he's tried to hold me at bay; he probably needed us for some sort of scheme to return the Titans into power.

"What are you planning?" demanded Nico. I got up in time to see him pointing his sword at Ash who surprisingly didn't flinch. Thalia threw me my katana, and I caught it on reflex. Thalia and I took our fighting stances. The odds looked pretty good for us; three against one. Another nudge at my consciousness. Stronger now. Okay, three and a half, seeing as how I'm partially unwell.

"A lot," Ash answered, taking out his own sword. He smiled at me creepily and I narrowed my eyes. What could he want from me? It was strange; I'd lost control over his muscles when I got hit, and I was trying to immobilise him but I couldn't. "I just don't understand what's taking _her_ so long."

He took out a strange-looking whistle and blew into it just as excruciating pain ran across my whole being.

Now something was trying to banish my soul out of my body. My screams filled the air, and I could hear the waves thrashed menacingly on the cliff side. I couldn't think properly and my body jerked violently. Pain, I was in so much pain. It was as if my soul was being ripped forcibly from my body and another was being forced in. I stared at the gem; it was all-out glowing with bright blue-green light. Using my left hand to pry the gem off my right, I found that I couldn't take the gem off; it really had fused with my hand, with my skin.

Nico knelt by me as Thalia raised her knives to fight Ash. Sounds of rushing water, clashing metal and my screams were vague. Everything I sensed seemed so far away, but I could just hear Nico say, "It's the gem; take it off!"

The blue pendant was stuck to my skin. How could I take it off? In ordinary situations, I would have rolled my eyes. I tried to summon the waters to come to my aid, but it took most of my willpower to to stay conscious.

Nico tried to pry it off my hand, but when I screamed louder (if that was possible), he stopped. That, or maybe it was because a horde of monsters climbed aboard the ship. Before long, Nico and Thalia would be overpowered by them.

'Child of Poseidon!' a voice cried in my head. It was feminine, but ethereal, like the voice of ancients.

'Who are you?' I asked her mentally. I could hear Ash laughing in the background as Thalia fought him. I saw Nico battle with a handful of dracaenae (my vision was doubling so I couldn't count, nor see well) but he wasn't doing so well because of the sheer number of them.

'I am Eurybia,' she replied. 'Titan of the stormy seas, wife of Krios.'

At the mention of sea, the entropy in my head dropped a few sizable notches. "S-sea..."

Then I felt myself being pushed off the deck and plunging into the waters of the West Coast.

I don't know if it was just desperation or the sheer force of the Eurybia's magic, but I had a crazy idea. As I loosed myself in the feeling of being surrounded by water, I yielded to Eurybia. I lost control of my body, but I could still feel the attraction of my soul to my body and I could still sense through it. That was enough. It should be.

'You know Ash, use my body and stop him!' I urged her. Eurybia ordered the water to raise my body up, and the seawater dropped me on the deck once more.

"Jean!"

"Yamato!"

'You're so naive, foolish half-blood. Dear Astraeus is my ally,' Eurybia told me. I saw my cousins' relieved expressions as they saw that I was well, but I couldn't tell them that I'm not in control. Eurybia picked up my katana and examined it closely. 'Your body is still weaker than what I would have wanted of a temporary vessel, but you'll do. For now.'

She raised my sword and caused the waves to envelop the surprised Nico and Thalia in a water prison. They tried to struggle, but the sheer force of the condensed water closed in on them and trapped them. I felt their furious glares on me, but I could do nothing; I had no more control over my body.

Eurybia focused her gaze on Ash, who had just lowered his sword. My lips formed a sinister smile. "Well done, Astraeus Starkey, Prince of the South."

* * *

In the next chapter, Jean gets exorcised but Nico gets cursed. Poor Thalia-onee-chan[4.]. Find out what happens in Chapter 7: Spellbound.

[1.] Good night!

[2.] I swear by the River Styx that Starkey isn't gay, but he's a talented astronomer.

[3.] Jean hasn't met Artemis yet. And no, Ash is not a child of Artemis.

[4.] Onee-chan or onee-san is an honorific added to a name of a girl older than the speaker. Example: Annabeth can call Izumi an onee-chan.


	8. Ch 7 Spellbound

**Disclaimer: haganoechibi does not own PJO.**

_Mom. It's been so long. You'll finally be free._

~Astraeus Starkey

**Chapter 7: Spellbound**

...

Who are you Ash Starkey?

The question rang in Nico's ADHD mind without any chances of ceasing. His recent experience in being unceremoniously wrapped in a bubble prison with a huntress by a fellow Big three half-blood wasn't pleasant to say the least, and it had all been orchestrated by that Starkey half-blood. Who was he, thought Nico, to be able to summon a Titaness such as Eurybia? Why had he not surfaced during the recently concluded Titan war? Why was he acting only now?

Nico's fingers curled into fists. He would find out. Soon.

A similar question clouded Thalia's thoughts and numbed her huntress senses. A bloody half-blood working for the Titans, that's for sure, thought the lieutenant of the hunt. What Thalia didn't understand was how this traitor half-blood remained undetected for all this time. She was certain that her mistress could have detected such a presence before, but perhaps the adventure of the Ophiotaurus and Atlas redirected her mistress' thoughts?

Thalia forced her thoughts clear, and tried to figure out what Lady Artemis would do. The goddess would surely analyze the prey first before striking. And that was what Thalia would do. But first, she had to get out of her watery prison, which she currently shared with a son of Hades she barely knew.

...

"Izumi!"

The said half-blood turned to see who called her.

"Annabeth-san."

"Have you seen Percy?" the younger daughter of Athena asked, apprehension on her face. "I haven't seen him this morning, and I'm sure he hasn't left camp without permission because I've asked Chiron, and that-"

Izumi Yamato raised a firm well-weathered hand to stop the rising tone of Annabeth. "I am sure that Percy is fine. Has he left any note whatsoever?"

"I was doing rounds in checking the cabins but found his bed hadn't been slept in," Annabeth told her. She turned to glare to where the Poseidon cabin was in the distance. "I have a feeling he's left to follow his sister on the quest. He's done that before."

The elder half-blood peered at Annabeth. "He does not have much regard to the rules in a quest, does he?"

Annabeth half-smiled, and Izumi nodded in understanding. "He... followed a quest group tasked to retrieve me and Lady Artemis."

"I used to distrust other non-Athenian demigods," Izumi began. Her mind settled on a certain Underworld half-blood, and recalled how she owed him for saving her granddaughter. "But I found out that they could be trusted as well."

Izumi put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. "We may not know now, but we shall find out soon. However, if he left you here, then it would probably be because he did not wish to endanger you. I am sure Percy knows what he is doing."

The two pairs of grey eyes met with a flash of understanding only Athena's children could do.

"I just wish I knew why," she said wistfully.

Izumi chuckled. "It's an Athena thing, I guess."

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed, staring off into the campers training in the distance. One of the Hecate kids was helping an injured Hermes camper go to the infirmary, and Annabeth was reminded of her own friends. "I wish I could be there with them, though."

"Them? You mean Percy and Thalia?"

"Jean and Nico too," Annabeth said. "They're my friends... I wish I could help. I don't want anyone to get hurt."

"All of them... are children of either Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, correct?" Izumi asked, and Annabeth nodded. Izumi's eyes narrowed.

"The Fates are testing the Big Three demigods," Izumi realized with a short gasp. Her grey turned anxious, and she took a few deep breaths before she said,  
"We'll stay on standby help them when they need us."

"They'll pull through. Percy will. I hope Jean does too."

"I know she will," echoed Izumi, but deep down, she was not so sure. There was just that ill feeling in her stomach that made her usual rock solid composure crack, and it had nothing to do with her late daughter.

...

Ash Starkey had never been happier in ages. He had finally secured a half-blood shell for Eurybia, who was sitting opposite him at the table in the drawing room. It would not be enough to restore the Titan to full power, since it was only a temporary possession, but it would definitely be enough for his objectives. At least, according to what Kronos told him a year ago. Yes, it would suffice.

"This is a nice ship," Eurybia commented. She had taken her time in examining the ship before she decided to talk to Ash. "A bit smaller than the Andromeda, I think. I'm sorry to hear it was destroyed."

"The Andromeda had to be sacrificed as a decoy, and as a warning to those puny demigods. This ship, the Cassiopeia, is the sister ship," Ash explained, lacing his fingers and setting them on the table, on which various astronomical symbols were engraved. "A little sister to the Andromeda, to be exact. But it is enough to house the remaining forces of Lord Kronos."

"Remaining?"

"Most have been defeated, rebelled, or betrayed our Lord upon his fall," Ash said, eyebrows knitting grimly. He forced aside the memories of monsters and half-bloods he'd had to assassinate out of treachery. He also forced aside his distrust of the son of Hermes. If Lord Kronos had only chose a half-Titan then things might have turned out differently for the Titan war. "Most of the half-bloods under my own cavalry had been on it upon his lordship's request."

"You say as if it's a bad thing," Eurybia noticed.

"I'm just saying that I could have done with a few more half-bloods than just monsters," Ash clarified, looking away. Then he asked, "To business then, Eurybia?"

"Let me guess," the Titan said, making a face, "This is about your human mortal mother."

Ash nodded slowly. He needed to be perfect to assure the Titan's cooperation. Else his plan would fail. Everything he said would have to be phrased carefully.

Eurybia smiled humourlessly. "Face it, half-blood. You hate me, and I hate you. Are you sure you want to ask _me_ for help?"

'Like anyone else could lift the curse,' Ash thought viciously, imagining Eurybia in Tartarus. He dearly wished he could drag the Titan to Tartarus, but not now. Not now, when his mother still needed help. Ash forced down the retort by coughing ostentatiously. Luckily, the Titan's attention had been curiously diverted, judging by the way her eyes unfocused.

Ash cleared his throat and straightened up. He felt like the astronomer he was back in the old days. "Quite certain. I have given you a voice above the depths of Tartarus where most of your consciousness remains."

"This particular spawn of Poseidon isn't first rate," Eurybia countered, fidgeting slightly; she was having a hard time adjusting to Jean's petite body. The Titan was so used to the relatively larger and robust body she occupied eons ago, and there was the fact that this particular spawn of Poseidon was persistently trying to wrestle for control of the body.

"But it should suffice until we can find another vessel, until Lord Kronos can regroup," Ash said, steering the conversation back into the main agenda. "I should be very glad to be of service to you, if you would lift the curse on my mother."

At the mention of the curse, Jean's consciousness stopped trying to wrestle control.

"It's a tempting argument," Eurybia said, smiling. There was long pause; Ash held his breath. "I'll think about it, Starkey. Of course, if I were you, I'd prepare myself for a hefty price."

As Eurybia stood with her back to Ash, who grinned. It had been the answer he'd been eager for. The Titan, and the two half-bloods were in his palms now. And soon, all would be well.

The powerful aura of Eurybia seemed to fill the ship, and waves grew even stronger. Eurybia suddenly whipped about, and Ash, startled, winced.

"I've thought about it; I'll lift your mother's curse," Eurybia announced. A grin spread across Eurybia's borrow features.

Delighted, Ash stood up and beamed. "That was fast!"

Eurybia moved closer and breathed in Ash's aura. Ash, for his sake, stood his ground. Although it did seem easy to hold yourself against a young girl.

"But in return, I require your absolute loyalty, Astraeus Starkey," Eurybia said. "By the River Styx, swear that you will be my servant!"

Ash stared deep into Eurybia's eyes. "I already am your servant. But I also need you to swear by the River Styx that you will lift your curse on my mother once I swear my oath."

Eurybia waved her hand. "Sure, sure."

Unbeknownst to him, or that he may have forgotten, half-blood plans do not always go to fruition.

...

Meanwhile, Nico and Thalia were enjoying themselves in their watery prison. Each had a personal air bubble supplied with enough oxygen for them to breathe and a personal space in the spherical aquarium. But those were the only perks of their aquatic cage. Except for their head, their bodies were totally soaked. Furthermore, Nico felt ridiculous.

'I'll never take a goldfish for granted again,' Nico thought. That is, if he ever survived his latest quest. Chances were peaky; Jean had gotten herself possessed by some Titan they had yet to know, and Thalia was fuming.

"Starkey!" she screeched, though the water made her voice wobbly. Her blue eyes flashed angrily. "And Yamato! I should have guessed it all along; Starkey and Yamato were in this together!"

"I don't think Jean is Starkey's partner," Nico countered. "She could have tried to kill or capture us earlier if she wanted to, but I doubt she could."

"Right, and Yamato could have killed us instead of trapping us in this... this..." Thalia punched the wall of the watery prison. It expanded slightly, but retracted back again. Thalia groaned.

"Aquarium?" Nico suggested uncertainly.

"Whatever! But I need to get my hands on Starkey and kill him! And when I get my hands on Yamato-"

"Listen, I know Jean," Nico argued, "She's not like that. But she's possessed by Eurybia, right? The Titan of the Stormy seas. Right now, Jean's forced to be allied to Starkey."

"Fine, if Jean wasn't in on the planning," Thalia said, folding her arms across her chest, "Starkey's still odd. I don't get Starkey at all; he could have called on other more powerful Titans like Typhon, or maybe Oceanus if he really needed a Titan of the waters, but he called for the Eurybia. I mean, what's up with that?"

"I don't know," replied Nico, shrugging. "But I also get the feeling that Starkey's involved in the dark force Artemis-"

"_Lady_ Artemis!"

"-was talking about. If I'm right then it's a good thing. We're on the right track."

The ship rocked around them, and both half-bloods were thankful they weren't affected; they didn't want to be sea sick at the wrong time.

"Okay," Thalia said once the rocking eased, "Assuming we're right, we got the first part of our quest done. We know who's acting behind this dark force, which we still don't know. It couldn't be Kronos; he's probably still recovering from his last defeat. Any other Titans we could consider?"

"Eurybia called Ash, Astraeus, the prince of the south," Nico said, "I don't know much about mythology but I know that the Titan of the South is Krios. That ram-horned guy in Othrys. Maybe Krios is his dad."

The hunter frowned. "I thought Krios was crushed when Mt. Othrys got destroyed."

"That's one of the good things that happened last August. Less stuff to take care of. But it's odd, isn't it?"

Thalia's brow furrowed as she nodded. "Have you ever thought of how Mt. Othrys with Krios and Atlas got defeated with the Olympians and all their allies were all at Mt. Olympus? If the shell of Kronos got destroyed, it doesn't mean that the throne would be destroyed too."

"Not much," Nico admitted, "maybe they got defeated by unknown allies."

"What, like imaginary Olympus guardians?"

"No idea," Nico answered, and he shifted uncomfortably. He was starting to shiver; not a good sign. But Nico would rather charter the whole underworld than admit that he wanted invulnerability too.

"Right. So let me get this straight. Krios fled and hid on the West Coast with some Astraeus half-blood as a lieutenant. Said half-blood summoned and trapped the essence of Eurybia, wife of Krios, in a daughter of Poseidon. And we get trapped here in the process for some unknown reason as said lieutenant with Eurybia sail westward."

"Good summary with a few loose points, but do you have any ideas what to do when we get out of here?"

Thalia's tone was hollow when she said, "I'm still thinking."

Nico was spared from whining again when a finger poked their aquarium.

"Jean!"

"Mermaid!" Jean narrowed her eyes at Nico's new nickname for her. "Hey, you called me Hell Boy."

"I'm gone for five minutes and you start fighting? Your daddies would be proud," Jean said, shaking her head. Thalia's sharp eyes knew there was something wrong with the young demigod; her face was flushed and her skin was almost as pale as Nico's.

"Jean. I know you're not at top condition, but can you get us out?" Thalia asked urgently, but Jean doubled over and fell on her knees.

"Jean!"

"It's...Filthy little-Titan-GET OUT-not-OF MY BODY! I will NOT! OUT!"

It was strange sight; Thalia and Nico could only watch as Jean's body battled with her own, like a person with a serious case of schizophrenia. In actuality, the two consciousnesses in the body were wrestling for control. When she resurfaced, she had a cocky expression on her face and her lips were twisted by a sneer.

"I have you two to thank for bringing her with you," Jean said, nodding to Thalia and Nico. "Poseidon's daughter just filled the right spot."

"Who are you?" Thalia demanded.

"Your cousin said it," Jean, or rather, Jean's body said, "I am Eurybia, wife of Krios, Titan of the stormy seas."

"I thought you were neutral about the last war," Nico blurted out.

"I let Krios have his game while I helped Oceanus with Poseidon, and I was nearly killed by it."

Jean's body doubled over again, and Jean spoke, "Eurybia wants an exchange. She wants dad to restore her power in exchange for me. But her possession's not absolute because of the gem. And Ash needs us for his mother to be cured!"

Jean collapsed again and then stood up.

"Can't have her spilling too many secrets," Eurybia said. "I'll see you later, I hope. And do fight again, will you? It adds to the chaos!"

And Eurybia left.

"We have to get out of her fast!" Thalia said, testing the surface of the prison like she was ready to vaporize it. Nico sure hoped she wouldn't.

"Yeah," agreed Nico, "But we're at a disadvantage domain-wise, and who knows how long Jean will last?"

"We have to play a quick strategy then," Thalia said, "We have to get in range, exorcise Jean, and get out. Hopefully in the getting out part we'll have Jean by our side, but I don't know how we'd exorcise her."

"It's not exactly possession per se," Nico said, chewing his lip.

"I guess," Thalia said, "If she was she'd burn up straight away, not unless she took a dip in the Styx and has some sweet spot somewhere."

"I don't think she did that. Jean said something about a shell, remember?"

"That's it!" Thalia exclaimed. She dropped her voice so only Nico could hear. "We need to get the shell off her. It's Eurybia's anchor to this world. If we could get it off we could save Jean."

"Are you sure this'll work?"

Thalia silenced him with a look.

"Now, about getting out," Thalia said, her eyes had regained its spark. She looked at the son of Hades. "You won't like it."

Nico sure didn't.

...

Eurybia started the long walk up to the bridge. She had to take each step patiently, and Eurybia disliked it. If she could have, Eurybia would have magicked herself to her destination of choice since she was in her domain. But no, she was still in a half-blood's body, and it limited her abilities to the point that only a trickle of magic could be used at a time lest her vessel burn up.

_Eurybia._

Eurybia felt a surge of irritation. Aside from limited powers, the Titan also had to make do with sharing the mind of her vessel, whose thoughts Eurybia diligently ignored.

_I don't get why you're helping him if you hate him._

The Titan ignored Jean again.

_You immortals like playing with us, right? You're just like the rest of them. You just care about yourselves._

Eurybia glanced at the mirror-like glass which showed the dark depths of the sea.

_You're a cynical, self-centered, egomaniac!_

"SHUT UP!" roared the Titan. The sea convulsed violently, rocking the ship. Jean responded with a mental laugh.

_Guess what, Eurybia? I won't. You've imprisoned my physical abilities, but I've still got my mental ones, and I'll use them as I please._

"I hate you, half-blood," Eurybia said in a low dangerous voice. "When I'm done with you, I swear I will vaporize you so that your daddy won't ever find you!"

_I don't care about that. My father doesn't care about me._

Jean felt the Titan delve into her memories, something she'd been not so keen of.

"Amusing, so your loyalty is not to your dear old daddy?"

_I am neither against nor with my father. Now tell me why you're helping him._

Eurybia forced Jean's lips into a cruel smile.

"I am the goddess of the stormy seas. I love chaos. Do you really think I'm doing this to help that puny half-blood son of my husband?"

...

Thalia had a plan. Thalia knew it was a long shot. But Thalia had to do it.

In fact, Thalia felt a faint pang of pity at the son of Hades as she curled her fingers around his slim throat. Nico's eyes had widened, and he made to push the hunter away, but the Thalia's grip was strong and sure. And it's not like you could do much more than scream when a child of Zeus sends a powerful current through your body.

Nico knew Hades' children were a bit unhinged and inclined to being strange and branded eccentric because they liked torture sessions, death, graveyard rituals or some such thing, and being one of those children, Nico didn't like being electrocuted. And he thought Thalia was crazy when she grabbed his neck for the second time.

Nico's yells echoed in the ship, and reached the ears of the guards.

"Check our guests, would you?" Eurybia asked the guards passing by. They shuffled off towards the dungeon, where additional shouts and curses in three different languages reverberated on its walls.

...

"Creative," Eurybia commented, sneering.

"Is there something going on with our sacrifices?" asked Ash as Eurybia reached the control room. Eurybia merely smiled.

"Of course. They're having so much fun. I've prepared a few surprises for them."

Ash frowned at how cocky his new ally was.

"Let me guess," he said, his brow knitting, "They have somehow freed themselves and are now roaming free in the ship, where you have unleashed a couple of sea monsters on them."

Eurybia smiled.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing," Ash murmured.

"YOU DARE-?!"

"They are children of the Big Three," Ash replied, his anxiety getting the better of him. "They are bound to cause more trouble than your regular half-blood."

Then the strangest thing happened. Ash could no longer move his body. It had stiffened, and slowly, it turned towards the host of the titan, who had one hand raised toward him. Jean glowered at the elder half-blood. "I will not take such insolence from a half-blood, especially you."

The malice dripping from the host's tone startled Ash, and he focused himself on what he wanted, on why he was working in the first place. It lay writhing far away, amidst white linen sheets and feather pillows. The image calmed him down, letting him shift his temper. It was imperative that he stick to his plan, which sadly, was about to unravel.

...

The guards blasted through the cell door just as the water prison exploded in their scaly or leathery faces. Amidst the explosion were two half-bloods, with the elder girl supporting the shocked younger boy.

Nico di Angelo glared at Thalia with much gusto. "You didn't have to electrocute me that hard."

Thalia just grinned at the unconscious monsters around her and began slicing them to dust. "Just shut up. Less talking more searching."

"They're at the bridge," Nico said and rolled his eyes. He started running for the stairs, when a new barrage of monsters blocked the corridor.

A whistling sound whizzed past Nico's ear. The monsters in front of Nico suddenly sprouted silver shafts on their foreheads. Nico grinned, pulled out his Stygian Iron sword, and made his way to the stairs while pulverizing the monsters in his path. Thalia followed suit.

"Great. More fun."

...

_Water!_

Everything was marine; his bed, the covers, the walls and tables. Even the corridors feature a clump of sea weed of two. And a servant passed by... with a tail behind him. He emitted a trail of bubbles as he went. A school of fish passed by the window, and a huge plant-creature waved about it, as if following a current.

Perseus Jackson's eyes widened in realization.

"Perseus."

Percy turned toward the sound, and his expression darkened.

"Triton."

"You will address me as Master Triton. Follow me. Lord Poseidon wishes to speak to us."

"Sure." Percy grudgingly followed his half-brother, and made sure Riptide was on his person before leaving the room.

"Faster!"

This does not seem well for Percy.

...

On the deck, a battle was commencing between Thalia, Nico, Ash and me. Eurybia was having fun in overpowering the lieutenant of Artemis, but Nico was doing fairly well against Starkey. For Thalia's sake, I have to admit she's really good. Eurybia ordered the ropes to entangle her, but Thalia jumped out of the way just as the massive tendrils of the ropes closed around her. The hunter lashed out at Eurybia again, but Eurybia jumped back and blocked Thalia's attack with my katana. Furiously, I rebelled against Eurybia's immense control, trying to break her concentration and slow down her movements.

Even then, it wasn't enough.

Eurybia kicked Thalia harshly on the stomach and sent the hunter flying towards the two boys battling on the lower decks. She crashed on top of Nico, who grunted under her weight. Thalia jumped up and raised her knives just in time to deflect Ash's overhead strike, while Nico recovered.

Eurybia strode lazily towards the stairs and descended to the lower decks to join them. "Don't leave me out on the fun!"

Eurybia lunged at the son of Hades, who ducked and put his shoulder into Eurybia's stomach.

_Ow!_

Eurybia grinned as she staggered back a few steps. "Each blow to this body is felt by your darling Jean. I don't feel anything, but I control everything!"

Nico regarded Eurybia warily, and raised his sword once more. His black eyes flickered from my face, to Thalia, and to my right hand, where Eurybia still held my katana and where the gem was stuck to my body.

"No!" I heard Starkey yell.

"Do it now!" I heard Thalia yell as she spun around to kick Ash in the chest, sending Starkey onto a pile of wooden crates which cracked under the force of his fall.

"What're you planning?" Eurybia asked, echoing my thoughts. She launched herself on Nico moving faster now, and not giving him enough time to counter-attack. Nico was forced to defend. Good thing was that it took all her weakened consciousness to focus on attacking Nico, and not on holding me back. I gained control of my body for a mere two seconds. Eurybia swore and attempted to stab Nico's mid-section, but the momentary pause was all Nico needed to grab my wrist with his free hand and twist it in a tight grip-lock. I gave a mental wince in pain, just as Thalia ran over to us. She used her momentum to give me nice Spartan kick, which hit me and sent me reeling backward. My head banged against something hard and metallic and I knew no more.

...

Piercing brown eyes surveyed the battle raging on the beck. No, the battle did not look good for Ash at all. Jean (and Eurybia) was out, and Ash had taken a free trip to crate-wreck. Ash did not have any back up, unless...

As she made preparations, she happened to glance again toward the main deck. Standing over the fallen demigod, the half-blood knew that Thalia would not hold back this time. She raised her knife high...

...

Ash picked himself up from the remains of the crates. He'd sustained a number of gashes and grazes, but nothing too bad yet. Ash's eyes scanned the scene. Little Jean had hit her head on a metal support post, and she slid to the floor. Unconscious. The orb on the daughter of Poseidon shimmered with otherworldly light which cast a silhouette of the two demigods poring over Jean.

NO!

The orb. He had to make sure it stayed intact. It was his last chance of talking to Eurybia and negotiating with the titan for lifting her mother's curse. His mother, who acted strong but writhed in pain inside. It was a matter of time before Mrs. Starkey's body failed altogether. But Ash would not allow that.

The half-titan bounded towards the huntress; he raised his sword to impale her...

...

Nico had one second to see the approaching half-blood. One second, to react. The son of Hades blocked the strike with his sword. Ash jumped back, his sword at the ready.

"You back-stabber," growled the younger boy. Nico prepared to battle Ash, but something wet, warm and fleshy hit him hard at the back of the head. The mysterious object pitched him forward, and the boy felt a bigger object whooshing above him.

The clashing of metal told Nico that Thalia had resumed battle with Ash, but he was only vaguely aware of that. With his free hand, Nico picked up the fleshy object: a hand, with all five digits attached and blood oozing from where it had been severed from the arm. The four minutes had started. He had to destroy the gem and reattach it on Jean's arm.

The gem was pulsing with blue light at the back of the palm, and with each pulse, the light grew weaker. The son of Hades raised his sword, and a lot of things happened at once.

Ash screamed. "Noooo!"

The butt of Thalia's knife hit Ash hard on the side of the head. The boy crumpled to the floor.

Nico drove the Stygian Iron blade into the center of the gem. The surface cracked, then dissolved into a million blue pieces.

A whooshing sound caught Nico off-guard. He straightened up, his body and mind fully alert. And then-

A sharp pain on his arm. His jacket was ruined. And Nico, suddenly feeling very faint, also went down, leaving a bewildered Thalia standing.

...

I found myself on the floor again and there was numb sensation way down my right arm. My eyes followed my skinny arm down to the bloody wrist, where my hand used to be, and I let out a gasp.

My right hand was no longer there.

I shall spare you of the gory details. To get over the shock of losing a body part, I forced myself to look around. Thalia, the only one left standing, stood over the unconscious Ash, as a hunter would on prey. Good. Nico had a nasty-looking wound on his arm, and the skin was turning a brilliant shade of green. I got up, very slowly. Thalia, though sporting her own set of injuries, reached Nico before I did.

"Poison," she confirmed. Her hand reached out to grab a canteen of nectar in the pack which was no longer behind her.

Beside the son of Hades was my dismembered hand. Seeing it, my body went into shock and it felt like jelly. I was scared, I was hurt, and I had a big chance of dying before we set sail to land over the seas. The sea!

"Sea," I croaked, pointing towards the edge of the deck. My voice sounded horrible.

"To Tartarus with you!" someone screamed. Thalia jumped up and parried Ash's sudden strike. Okay, no help in getting off the ship. I had to do this on my own.

...

Thalia kicked Ash in the shins before grabbing his forearm. Ash yelled in pain as electricity from the daughter of Zeus coursed through his body. He jerked back and fell on his behind. His sword skittered away a few feet away.

Ash knew he would be no match for the daughter of Zeus, but he also knew something she didn't. At least, not yet.

"Thalia Grace, wasn't it?" Ash rolled away from Thalia's arm as she swooped in with her knife. The hunter grunted in response and readied herself for another exchanged of blows. "I've heard the name before, you know. Grace."

"Does the name 'Jason' ring a bell?" Ash prodded.

On the other end, the hunter took in a sharp breath.

...

"You're not dying on me, Nico!" I yelled. In other circumstances, I wouldn't have moved injured bodies, but I knew I had to, if it was to save a comrade. After stuffing my dismembered hand in what was left of my jacket in the hopes of it not getting lost in sea, I dragged his body with me and threw ourselves to the sea. Ash shouted something, but it was lost as the sea swallowed us in its dark depths.

The ocean flourished around us. I held my disembodied hand close to my wrist, and the essence of the ocean helped me focus to heal myself and re-attach my hand to my wrist. It was a great feeling to be whole again. I inhaled deeply, opening my eyes.

But while the ocean gave me strength, I felt it reject Nico, who reeked of corpses and of all things Hades, but I gently coaxed an air bubble to form around his head.

I summoned all I knew of the body, all I learnt from my grandma, how healing was supposed to work.

'Heal him,' I implored the ocean. 'Please.'

...

Thalia gaped at him, gripping her knife so hard that the knuckles turned white. "What do you want now, Starkey?"

Ash grinned at her. "Oh, I just happened to want to tell you something about your... ah, brother... but you were going to kill me, so carry on."

"What do you know about Jason?" Thalia demanded, pointing the knife at Ash, who shrugged.

"Listening to me now?" Ash asked. "I saw him a couple of months ago, if you must know, and he was battling my dad."

"But... Jason... He..."

Thalia looked absolutely forlorn, that she almost let down her guard. Almost. Ash hooked his legs and twisted. Thalia went down, but broke her fall using her knife-free hand. She propelled herself backward, away from Ash, who managed to grab his sword.

"Nice trick, boy," growled Thalia, her hunter's aura blazing silver around her body.

"You say it as if being male's a bad thing." Ash pouted. Thalia surged forward. "And I wasn't lying about Jason Grace."

...

It was the longest moment of my life. We sank slowly to the bottom of the ocean in all uncertainty. I held onto him by the forearms, waiting, praying, for him to survive.

After what seemed like ages, he opened his eyes.

A big weight was lifted from my shoulders. I felt lighter, but also weaker, like I gave up a small part of my life force. My brain was numb and my body ached, but it was ok.

"You survived!" I cried out happily.

"I-I'm okay," Nico said, looking at me uncertainly, but he sounded relieved. Exhausted, but fine. "Thanks."

I gestured to swim upward. I let the sea recharge me; I knew my strength was drained from healing him, and I could only hope the currents heard my plea to lead us to the surface. It was all I could do before blacking out again. Healing a poisoned, fatally-injured demigod takes a lot out of your system. But hey, I saved my cousin this time.

The moment we reached the deck and lost contact with the water, I immediately felt dizzy. I could barely see, but I did hear someone yelling and feel something hot whiz past my ear. I regained consciousness a few seconds later. I was on deck, and Thalia was kneeling beside Nico, who had curled into a ball.

I got up and knelt beside my cousins.

"What happened?" I asked Thalia.

Thalia answered in a hollow voice. "He got hit by-"

Whatever Nico got hit by, I didn't find out because he smacked both of us in the face right there.

A deranged wail came from the seas, and Thalia and I were enveloped by blue mist.

"I wasn't expecting this," Ash muttered darkly, and glared angrily at us.

"What do you mean?"

But the scene blurred and I knew no more.

**Author's Note: I'm still alive, you know. In the next chapter, we'll see how the events have changed our young half-bloods. What is Ash up to, and who is his partner? What happened to Nico? What direction will they go to? The clashing of wills begin in Chapter 8 Marooned.**


End file.
